Report: IT Spending Will Pick Up Federal agencies will award almost $40 billion in IT and C4I contracts in the next few months, according to an analysis by the market research firm Input. “New Federal IT and C4I contract award activity will heat up in mid fiscal year 2004,” says Luttner. She adds, “A surge in multiple award ID/IQ contracts will dominate IT procurement in the coming months.” Among the multiple award contracts anticipated are GSA’s FAST, an 8(a) set-aside, and Commerce’s COMMITS small-business set-aside. The Commerce Department said the COMMITS awards, scheduled Feb. 25, have been delayed. No new schedule was announced. Input says federal IT and C4I program awards slowed in January. Twenty-six new contracts valued at more than $1 million each were awarded that month, compared to 46 in January a year ago. The awards totaled about $6.7 billion. Six of the contracts were small business set-asides and two were 8(a) set-asides. President Bush’s 2005 budget proposal, announced last month, includes nearly $60 billion dollars for IT projects. About $27 billion is directed to the Defense Department while more than $10 billion directly supports homeland security, the Office of Management and Budget said. The full report and analysis is available at www.input.com.