IT spending on the increase among Fed budgets -- especially for VA efforts

Government spending on technology efforts allow for better services and efficient operations.

Bush wants 7 percent IT increase President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal 2006 calls for a 7 percent increase in information technology spending governmentwide to $65.1 billion, including significant increases for the Homeland Security Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The proposal, to be sent to Capitol Hill Feb. 7, represents a modest 4.9 percent increase for the Defense Department and a 9 percent increase for civilian agencies. Overall, it seeks a 7.1 percent, or $4.3 billion, for IT governmentwide.

Budget documents obtained by Federal Computer Week include proposed IT cuts for other agencies. Among the losers are the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management and NASA.

But the biggest winners in the proposal, which is expected to be altered significantly before it becomes law, are DHS, which would get a 24.7 percent increase; the VA, which would get a 29.2 percent increase; the Justice Department, which would get a 20.2 percent increase; and the National Science Foundation, which would get a 25.6 percent increase.

Wired: ponderings about new music with technology changing the landscape

Music matters for me for three different reasons. First, I enjoy and support it as a consumer, audience member, and fan. Second, the digial landscape is important as we build the campaign. We'll inject music and have done so already. Third comes the challenge of being one who governs. The lawmaker in me is going to be able to put my insights into action in the state house and among other law-making bodies.

Wired 13.02: VIEW Record labels are threatened by technologies that give fans access to music in ways no one ever planned. They plead with Congress for more laws to control the fans. Activist organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge (on whose boards this columnist sits) are fighting back. They (we) demand an end to the war, and the attack on innovation that it represents.

I am a friend of the open-source ways. And, I'm much more than a friend of those styles when I'm elected. We need to look out for the public domain. We can't just cave to the corporate lawyers.

These issues are in quick evolution in education, publishing, industry and the global culture. We need to have an understanding of the various forms and a strong sense of responsibility to the public at large.