Biden’s 2023 Budget Request Includes $300M for Technology Modernization Fund

President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2023 budget proposal includes an additional $300 million in funding for the Technology Modernization Fund.

TMF is a government-wide program authorized in 2017 to finance information technology modernization projects proposed by government agencies.

In budget documents, the administration said that continued investment in IT will help ensure that the government can keep up with the pace of modernization, FedScoop reported Monday.

“With the continuously evolving IT and cyber landscape, these investments are an important down payment on delivering modern and secure services to the American public,” the White House added.

The administration added that TMF provides value because funding is separated into tranches. Agencies must first achieve a certain modernization milestone before they can secure additional TMF capital.

The head of the TMF Board recently said that the program will only award loans to projects with the “greatest chance of success.”

Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana, chair of the TMF Board and a 2022 Wash100 winner, said that the program has limited funding and can only afford to “invest in agencies that are committed to the framework of us building in an iterative manner.”

Before being granted funding, agencies must first prove their ability to systematically achieve organizational change, Martorana said during FedScoop’s The Daily Scoop podcast.

TMF has so far received about $1.2 billion in federal investment, including an initial $175 million from the annual budget process, an additional $25 million in fiscal 2021 funding and $1 billion through the American Rescue Act.

The program recently awarded loans to finance IT modernization projects at the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Selective Service System.