Debt ceiling deal impacts IT budgets

What federal IT contractors need to know about the legislation

By Grier Eagan, Senior Market Intelligence Analyst

With the expected passing of the debt ceiling legislation, which locks in federal civilian spending until January 2025, contractors who sell IT to the government face a shifting landscape. While the Federal Civilian FY24 IT budget will cap at $56.4 billion, identical to the budget passed in FY22, opportunities still exist for those nimble enough to adapt.

Despite this cap representing a $6.9 billion decrease from the IT budget originally requested for FY24, IT vendors should take solace in the fact that the FY25 budget will see a marginal 1 percent increase. However, considering the current annual inflation rate of 4.93 percent as per the Consumer Price Index, this means that the federal civilian government will have approximately 4 percent less buying power under the FY25 budget than the FY24 budget.

Selling cyber now means understanding FITARA

Feds update FITARA metrics to include agency performance in critical cyber needs.

By Tara Franzonello, Program Development Manager

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform (COR) released its 15th  Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard in December 2022. This latest scorecard introduced a new category for cyber security. 

Agencies’ protests against enacting this key IT legislation have high visibility from agency chief information officers (CIOs) to the General Accounting Office (GAO) to Congress. Technology vendors have an advantage over their competition if they can help agency customers show progress in measured categories. This is now particularly important for FITARA because agency self-assessment for compliance happens every spring.

Why FITARA matters for federal cyber security sales