OMB: Don't count that e-gov money yet

President Bush may have proposed a $100 million electronic government fund, but don't hold your breath waiting for the money to flow to your favorite Web project. That's the message delivered by Jasmeet Seehra, senior policy analyst in the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Speaking at the FedWeb 2001 conference today in Bethesda, Md., Seehra warned gathered feds that, should the budget request become reality, OMB officials would give "a fairly comprehensive scrub of any project that came in" applying for a grant. Seehra said the scrutiny would rival that given agency requests for year 2000 repair money during 1998 and 1999.

She also said OMB would pass along agency proposals to their appropriating committees on the Hill, as it did with year 2000 requests.

"If there is no agreement from your appropriator, you don't get the money," Seehra said. Projects will be examined in light of their security and privacy provisions, and adherence to the Government Performance and Results Act, among other things. She added that OMB has received numerous inquiries from agencies, but that it hadn't yet talked to members of Congress or set up a process to handle requests. She predicted a detailed version of the administration's 2002 budget proposal wouldn't come out until late spring.