WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the Obama Administration released the President’s FY2017 Budget for the Federal government. The budget provides for significant investments in information technology (IT) infrastructure designed to continue to strengthen OPM’s cyber security posture and the agency’s customer service capabilities.

“The investments in this budget reflect OPM’s mission to recruit, retain and honor a world-class workforce to best serve the American people,” said Beth Cobert, Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management. “The President’s budget provides vital investments that OPM needs to continue its important work to strengthen and modernize our information technology infrastructure and to increase the number of critical staff who can serve Federal employees and their families as they transition to retirement and beyond.”

The President’s budget includes $37 million in funding to support OPM’s priority of continuing to strengthen the security of its systems. OPM continues to partner closely with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and other government partners to proactively take steps to enhance its network security infrastructure. OPM is working with DHS to implement Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation of its networks using Government-wide Information Security Continuous Monitoring tools to enhance its ability to rapidly identify and respond to emerging cyber threats.

Today, the President also directed his Administration to implement a Cybersecurity National Action Plan that takes near-term actions and puts in place a long-term strategy to enhance cybersecurity awareness and protections within the Federal government and across the country.  Like many other agencies, OPM will play an important role in its implementation, including among other things expanding the cybersecurity workforce in the Federal government.

 In FY16 and FY17, OPM will also prioritize and stand up the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB), which will absorb much of the work of the Federal Investigative Service (FIS), the entity currently responsible for conducting 95% of the Federal government’s background investigations. OPM will also transfer responsibility for the IT infrastructure management for NBIB to the Department of Defense. These actions will enhance the security and effectiveness of Federal background investigations infrastructure.

Finally, the President has requested $1.5 million to boost the number of staff who respond to customer inquiries in OPM’s Retirement Services Center. The additional resources will help increase the average speed of answering phone calls and emails, and reduce the average processing time for retirement claims. The $105 million in total funding for Retirement Services (RS) will support OPM’s goal to provide Federal retirees with timely and accurate retirement benefits.

THE PRESIDENT’S FY17 BUDGET: OPM HIGHLIGHTS

• Finances most OPM activities at levels similar to those enacted for FY 2016
• Provides substantial additional resources for IT operations at OPM
  • The budget increase includes $37M to continue OPM’s ongoing work in IT Network Remediation and Stability, and $10M to begin replacing a 30-year-old Trust Fund Financial System. 
  • In the Office of Inspector General, an increase of $4.9M will be invested in cybersecurity oversight, systems security enhancements, and system migration into the OPM IT Infrastructure. These resources will also fund increased oversight and improper payments enforcement of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP).
• OPM’s Retirement Services’ budget request increased by $1.5M to expand staff who can respond to customer inquiries. The additional resources are expected to improve average speed of answering customer phone calls and responding to emails. During 2010-2011, OPM experienced a 30 percent increase in e-mail volume accounting for more than 280,000 e-mails received annually.