$787B. $787,000,000,000.00. Seven hundred and eighty seven billion dollars. However you say it or write it, that's a lot of dough. That's the amount of the federal stimulus package called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
The mission of the ARRA has several components but one of them is to "address long-neglected challenges". Many people have been trying to make sure the technical infrastructure we depend upon to keep the lights on, help water flow, keep transportation moving and secure the financial engines in America are considered as some of those challenges. It's no surprise to anyone reading this blog that those are huge issues. In the early days of the technology revolution we didn't give a lot of thought to security in deploying many of these systems so now we are faced with one of those "long-neglected challenges".
Interestingly enough though, the challenge that many of my colleagues and I face is how to identify the appropriate source and decipher the guidelines for applying, receiving, and executing those very same dollars. Whenever federal funds are involved in such massive amounts, you'd expect a considerable amount of oversight and this case is no exception. With about $19B identified for the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), $7.2B allocated for deployment of broadband and $18.3B for research and development ($580M to the National Institute of Standards and Technology) there is no shortage of issues. In fact, my strategic plan will eventually include a number of enterprise projects that capitalize on these broad categories while benefiting most of the citizens in the state of California. The goal with any of these grant programs is to identify projects with the biggest bang and as broad a scope as possible. In state government that means citizens so I'm looking at projects that can upgrade systems or provide new levels of protection to infrastructures that helps both state and local governments.
I'll let you know how it comes out but if you have any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to throw them my way. I'll be writing more on this topic soon.