Column: U.S. tech firms hit by government 'slim-down'
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At the risk of opening a can of political worms, numbers don’t lie.
The federal government’s austerity measures of the past three years have cut into the earnings of America’s information technology industries.
The additional cuts forced by sequestration from the start of this year hurt more.
And the two-week government shutdown that just ended really put the lid on it.
Although the reopening of the federal government seems to have resolved nothing, the future looks marginally better for federal spending on information technology, according to a new forecast from the TechAmerica Foundation, the non-profit arm of an industry group.
After several years of steep reductions in federal spending on information technology, the foundation projects that spending will increase 2.3% a year from now through 2019.
That will bring total spending from $70 billion next year to $78.5 billion.