Investments in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence efforts will likely continue to increase as overall defense spending remains flat in future years, but a worsening pandemic could dampen those projections, according to new analysis from the Professional Services Council's latest research on federal budgets. The Defense Department is largely expected to keep pace with current budget levels, potentially seeing very modest 2% growth to topline budgets, PSC's report projects. That trend could also extend to IT modernization efforts. Senate Appropriators weighed in today on 2021 spending, proposing a $696 billion defense budget, slightly above 2020 levels and slightly below the Trump administration's funding request. The House passed their funding bill in July at $694.6 billion.