Government Wrangling Stalls Innovation

President Bush made a policy statement last month that he would reject most of the appropriations bills Congress is working on. At about the same time, the Office of Management and Budget announced a new man at the helm -- Jim Nussle, former Iowa congressman, replacing Rob Portman as director.

Both events have a number of Democrats on the Hill -- as well as contractors, I suspect -- frustrated. Portman wasn't exactly a spendthrift, but history shows that Nussle is a bulldog for cost cutting and a big proponent of Bush's spending controls. That leaves a lot of efforts to pass spending bills calling for increases in funds on life support.

Spending controls are necessary -- especially as the federal deficit continues to inflate. But what's happening now has little to do with efforts to balance the budget and more to do with political wrangling. The administration is throwing around the little bit of muscle it has left after Democrats took over Congress -- putting up roadblocks to all of their efforts -- and Democrats are in return keeping hush hush about a whole variety of earmarks they're attaching to spending bills -- despite criticizing Republicans that deployed that exact strategy. The good news is that some of the earmarks are efforts to fund IT initiatives; the bad news is that few will likely get anywhere. The House and Senate decided that earmarked projects had to be approved by the House Appropriations Committee before they hit the floor -- giving opposing sides plenty of time to challenge them.

In other words, more stalled initiatives.

Same old story -- partisanship of government and convoluted processes impact progress. And even more than Congressmen that see their projects squashed, contractors feel the pain as opportunities shrink with lack of funds.