The Biden administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2024 budget request issued today by the White House features a proposed $200 million addition to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), and a 4.9 percent annual budget increase for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
The budget blueprint also contains Biden administration proposals to increase cybersecurity spending among several other Federal agencies. Here’s a rundown:
TMF Boost
The budget request features an additional $200 million of funding for TMF, which is administered by the General Services Administration (GSA) and exists to provide money for Federal agency technology improvement projects. The fund received a $1 billion infusion in 2021, and has been steadily spending that amount down across a range of investments in numerous agency tech projects, with a particular focus on cybersecurity and citizen service improvements.
The FY 2024 increase is down from the $300 million increased proposed by the Biden administration for FY 2023.
“Technology serves as the foundation of the Federal Government’s ability to deliver on its mission,” the budget blueprint released today says.
“The administration is leading on the technology issues of the day, taking concrete steps to protect the nation’s Federal systems from compromises, leveraging the benefits of digital identity and artificial intelligence while balancing risk, redefining security expectations for software and the cloud, and maximizing the impact of taxpayer dollars to deliver a better customer experience for the American people,” the proposal says.
“The administration is focused on understanding where agencies are on their IT modernization journeys and making intentional investments at the right time to enable secure technology and innovation to advance from year to year.”
The White House blueprint notes that the TMF is now managing “nearly $700 million for 38 investments, across 22 Federal agencies, and has received and reviewed more than 220 proposals totaling $3.5 billion in funding demand.”
“TMF is particularly well-positioned to make a large impact in the Federal government’s ability to deliver excellent, equitable, and secure services and customer experience by identifying opportunities to leverage technology across agencies and investing in IT modernization, cybersecurity, and user-facing services,” the White House said.
“The TMF improves the likelihood of project success through an incremental investment approach, tying project funding to delivery of milestones and strong technical oversight,” the blueprint says. “The TMF has proven to be a catalyst to show what is possible across government – and to scale lessons learned.”
CISA Increase
The FY 2024 budget blueprint proposes a $145 million increase for CISA, to a total of $3.1 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of about 4.9 percent. That proposed increase, the document says, will help “advance the Administration’s commitment to making cyberspace more resilient and defensible.”
“This includes $98 million to implement the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2021 and $425 million to improve CISA’s internal cybersecurity and analytical capabilities,” the document says.
The blueprint also spells out CISA’s expanding scope as it works to execute on the aims of President Biden’s 2021 Cybersecurity Executive Order, the Office of Management and Budget’s M-22-09 memorandum guiding agencies toward zero trust security architectures, and priorities set forth by the National Cyber Director.
Other Categories
National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS) – the budget blueprint does not specify a spending figure related to the NCS released last week, but the strategy is mentioned by President Biden under the hearing of confronting global challenges and keeping the country safe.
Justice Department – the blueprint includes funding to expand the agency’s “ability to pursue cyber threats through investments that support efforts to build cyber investigative capabilities at FBI field divisions nationwide.”
“These investments include an additional $63 million for more agents, enhanced response capabilities, and strengthened intelligence collection and analysis capabilities,” the document says. “These investments are in line with the National Cybersecurity Strategy that emphasizes a whole-of-Nation approach to addressing the ongoing cyber threat.
Energy Department – under the heading of strengthening cybersecurity and resilience of the energy sector, the blueprint says it “provides $245 million to enhance the security of clean energy technologies and the energy supply chain.”
State Department – the blueprint says it “requests more than $395 million to advance global cyber and digital development initiatives, including State’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, USAID’s Digital Strategy, PGII digital connectivity efforts, and regional initiatives such as Digital Transformation with Africa.”
“Across this work, the budget: bolsters U.S. and allied technology leadership; advances inclusive and responsible technology development, which also supports the ability of women, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex community, and other marginalized groups to safely access digital technologies; strengthens supply chain security; and enhances cooperation on privacy, data sharing, and digital trade,” it says.
“The budget would support working with a broad range of partners to ensure an open, trusted, interoperable, reliable, and secure digital backbone and other advanced communication technologies in low- and middle-income countries,” the document says.
Treasury Department – The blueprint says it “provides $215 million, an increase of $115 million above the 2023 enacted level, to protect and defend sensitive agency systems and information, including those designated as high-value assets.”
“The budget increases centralized funding to strengthen Treasury’s overall cybersecurity efforts and continue the implementation of a Zero Trust Architecture,” it says. “These investments would protect Treasury systems from future attacks.”
