The Biden administration’s first budget proposal focuses heavily on the federal workforce, including bolstering the IT and acquisition workforces and more training opportunities for non-technical employees.
The budget proposal released last week included more than $58 billion for civilian agency IT. But the budget documents noted—as so many practitioners have before—that IT delivery is as much about technology as it is about people, including those who use it as well as those who deploy it.
“After decades of under-investment in a modern-day workforce, a failure to partner with labor unions, and ongoing, unwarranted attacks on its independence, the civil service is in need of repair and rebuilding,” the documents state, noting the Biden administration has already taken steps in this direction.
The president’s proposal includes a 2.7% pay increase for all federal workers, as well as some provisions specifically for employees working in technology and cybersecurity, and those who want to learn more about those disciplines.
“To support the federal IT and cybersecurity portfolio, the budget proposes to identify and address critical skills gaps across the IT and cybersecurity workforce,” the documents state. “The budget invests in innovative programs that improve the government’s ability to recruit, retain, and train a workforce that can build, maintain, and secure federal information and information systems.”
The proposal includes support for ongoing training programs, as well, such as the Trump administration-era Federal Reskilling Academy, which gives non-technical federal employees an opportunity to learn IT, cybersecurity and data science skills that can help them find better federal jobs and fill critical gaps in the existing workforce. The Biden administration sees such programs as a means to “address critical knowledge skills gaps by reinvesting in existing ..
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