Despite the bad economy, tech companies have a reason to rejoice. The stimulus package President Obama pushed through Congress budgets about $100 billion toward information technology -- or so says the newly-merged trade group TechAmerica.
According to a NextGov.com article that appeared last Friday, TechAmerica officials estimate that the "$100 billion in IT funds included in the stimulus package would encourage the long-term growth of the U.S. technology industry."
But where did that $100 billion estimate come from? It's a suspiciously round number, and a surprisingly high one. The direct technology provisions in the stimulus include $19 billion for health IT, $7.2 billion for broadband infrastructure development and $4.5 billion for smart energy grids -- a total of $31.7 billion.
The Industry Standard attempted to contact TechAmerica about its $100 billion estimate, but the group did not respond to emails or phone calls.
Formed recently by a merger of four established trade groups, TechAmerica claims to have about 1,500 members, including LexisNexis, Lockheed Martin, InFocus, Xerox, MySpace, InFocus, Cray, Symantec, and Sharp.
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