DHS leads Bush budget proposals

Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff wants $1 billion for border security on top of the $1.2 billion already appropriated.

Chertoff wants the money for fencing, vehicle barriers and electronic surveillance along U.S. land borders.

The DHS request was just one of the highlights as President Bush sent his 2008 budget proposal to Congress on Feb. 5.

Overall the federal IT budget request is going up 3 percent to $65 billion. Other agency requests include $1.23 billion for the Census Bureau, $1.86 billion for IT for Veterans Affairs, $341 million to protect against threats to the food supply, including the ability to detect, respond to and recover from disease and $410 million for Treasury to reduce the tax gap through research, technology, enforcement and taxpayer service.

More coverage on the budget is available at http://www.washingtontechnology.com. Click on Budget under Hot Topics.