The record budget request for the 2005 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, 2004, asks Congress to ignore a widening deficit of $521 billion and to increase defense spending by 7 percent and homeland security spending by 10 percent.

In a letter to Congress accompanying the proposed budget, Bush acknowledged the record gap between spending and tax revenue. "Economic growth and good stewardship of taxpayer dollars will help us meet another important priority: cutting the budget deficit brought on by recession and war," Bush said. "We must continue to evaluate each federal program, to make sure that it meets its goals, and produces the desired results."

Total federal spending on information technology would grow to $59.8 billion, up slightly from the $59.1 billion requested by Bush last year. The Defense Department takes a large portion, with a proposed $27.4 billion, followed by the Department of Health and Human Services with $5 billion and the Department of Homeland Security at $4.4 billion.

By Declan McCullagh at ZDNet.

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