President Obama’s FY ’16 budget proposal, released Feb. 2, allocates $14 billion to support cybersecurity efforts across government, an increase of about $1 billion over the previous year.
“No foreign nation, no hacker, should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets, or invade the privacy of American families. In addition to increasing funding to protect our Nation against cyber-attacks, I continue to urge the Congress to finally pass the legislation we need to meet this evolving threat,” Obama wrote in the message accompanying the budget document.
DoD consists of a large part of the overall cybersecurity request, $5.5 billion. This is an increase of $400 million over the Pentagon’s FY ’15 budget request.
In the budget request, overall IT spending reaches $86.4 billion, an increase of over $2 billion. And $37.3 billion of that is requested for Department of Defense spending.
The Department of Homeland Security is seeking $818.3 million within the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPDD), a 7 percent increase over the past year (Defense Daily, Feb. 2).
The administration is also requesting over $227 million through the General Services Administration for the acquisition of land and construction of a federal Civilian Cybersecurity Campus. “A resilient, efficient, Federally owned civilian cybersecurity campus solution will serve the expanding needs of the Federal government’s global civilian cybersecurity efforts and is the most cost-effective means to support this long-term mission,” the administration said in its request.
The Department of Energy also wants over $306 million in cybersecurity funding. This includes nuclear energy and nuclear weapons activities security.
Other large cybersecurity requests include NIST in the Department of Commerce for $109 million, an increase of $7 million and 10 new employees; the Department of Health and Human Services for $73 million, an increase over $28 million; and the Department of Agriculture for $53 million, an increase of $7.6 million for the Office of the CIO.
The budget proposal also allocated $105 million to the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) to help it scale up work while creating digital service teams in 25 agencies. The funding also helps increase oversight and accountability for IT spending, improve IT procurement, and improve agency cybersecurity and cyber readiness, according to the budget fact sheet.