The White House has requested $150 million in its fiscal year 2020 budget for the government-wide fund to go after information technology modernization projects, a significantly lower amount than was requested the previous two fiscal years.
Administration officials wrote in the budget request, released Monday, the $150 million for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) will allow the relatively new program to continue working through its log of over 50 proposals totaling more than $500 million in potential funding.
“The administration requests $150 million for the TMF in 2020 to provide seed funding for additional projects and to allow the TMF to tackle more complex, government-wide efforts,” officials wrote.
The last two initial requests for TMF included $220 million in FY ’18 and $228 million in FY ’19, which ultimately resulted in $100 million and $25 million, respectively, after the final appropriations process.
Officials noted the program has already resulted in seven funded projects totaling $90 million.
Initial projects include $15.2 million for a Department of Energy enterprise cloud email program and $15 million for a General Services Administration application modernization effort.
TMF began out of the recent Modernizing Government Technology Act and allows agencies to receive funding for modernization programs and then repay the money back over five years.
The fund has faced scrutiny from lawmakers during previous budget cycles over the slow rate of certifying proposals and a lack of transparency over how the TMF board decides which projects to approve.