The 2005 U.S. federal budget includes just $5 million for the eGov fund. The amount requested for the year was $45 million. Last year the fund received just $3 million, which means over the last two years just $8 of the $100 million George Bush had requested for the fund when it was initiated
has been granted. The money is part of a central fund that federal agencies can use toward their eGov intiatives.

As a spokesman for Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) says: "On e-government issues in general, there's just no coordinated political constituency pushing appropriators to allocate money. They see no political benefit in targeting funds toward E-Gov projects, which would require taking away money from other pet projects. In addition, appropriators see the E-Gov fund as duplicative spending."

This is a very short-sighted view, considering that in the long run the fruits of the funded initiatives could end up saving money. Overall, the Government IT budget increased just 1% from last year (to $59.7 billion).