Bush proposes £38bn IT budget

The US administration has proposed a $64.3bn (£38bn) IT budget for next year, with the slight increase on this year mainly going to homeland security.

President George Bush has proposed an IT budget of $30.5bn for the Department of Defense, marginally up on the $30.4bn given this year.

For civil agencies, he proposed $33.7bn, compared to the $32bn this year.

A large chunk of the additional cash here will be awarded to the Department of Homeland Security, which has been allocated an extra $772m.

The Department of Education, Department of Treasury and NASA have all seen decreases in their allocated IT spend.

Overall, Bush has proposed a $2.7tn budget, with a decrease in spending on the Medicare healthcare scheme of $36bn over the next five years.

The budget has still to be approved by the US Congress.