House lawmakers did not include an additional budget for the Technology Modernization Fund in a recently passed bill that would reopen federal agencies affected by the government shutdown, Nextgov reported Friday.
TMF supports agencies in their information technology modernization efforts, but the House spending bill would not provide resources for the fund that started with $100M and currently has nearly $31.5M remaining.
Without an additional budget, TMF will wait for agencies to pay back the grants they received until it distributes another set of funding. The government expects the process to take up to five years.
House leaders said the new spending bill backs a bipartisan legislation previously approved by the Senate.Â
Senators in late 2018 refused to support a House proposal to provide TMF with an $150M additional budget for fiscal year 2019 due to lack of data on the program’s outcome.
The Office of Management and Budget previously warned that such a funding cut “would halt the Technology Modernization Board’s ongoing work to tackle impactful, government-wide IT modernization efforts.â€