A Snapshot: Government-Wide Contracting

A 2022 Update

The federal government obligated $694 billion through contracts in fiscal year 2022, including about $40 billion related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read on for a snapshot of federal contracting in fiscal year 2022.

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Which agencies are responsible for the most contract dollars?
TotalCivilianDefenseDHSDOEGSAHHSNASAOther Civilian AgenciesStateTREASUSDAVAAir ForceArmyNavyOther Defense Agencies
Click on an agency or department to filter figures below.
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What did they buy?
Total Civilian Agencies
Total Defense Agencies

Services

$230

Dollars in billions

Products

$49

Dollars in billions

Services

$205

Dollars in billions

Products

$210

Dollars in billions

Top 5 Civilian Services and Products

Total obligations (in constant fiscal year 2022 dollars in billions)

Top 5 Defense Services and Products

Total obligations (in constant fiscal year 2022 dollars in billions)

$17.81$15.72$15.13$10.84$9.15
$15.41$4.02$2.03$1.94$1.55
$19.91$14.12$6.83$6.84$6.05
$29.11$22.52$16.83$11.44$11.35
Services
  1. Support- professional: other
  2. Medical- general health care
  3. Operation of miscellaneous buildings
  4. Oper of govt R&D GOCO facilities
  5. Support- professional: engineering/technical
Products
  1. Drugs and biologicals
  2. Precious metals primary forms
  3. Medical and surgical instruments, equipment, and supplies
  4. IT and telecom - business application software (perpetual license software)
  5. Passenger motor vehicles
Services
  1. Support- professional: engineering/technical
  2. Medical- general health care
  3. Support- professional: other
  4. Support- management: logistics support
  5. Maint/repair/rebuild of equipment- aircraft and airframe structural components
Products
  1. Drugs and biologicals
  2. Aircraft, fixed wing
  3. Combat ships and landing vessels
  4. Guided missiles
  5. Liquid propellants and fuels, petroleum base
Similar to prior years, government-wide spending on services outpaced spending on products. For the second year in a row, defense and civilian agencies spent the most on drugs and biologicals.
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Who got the contracts?
DefenseCivilianOther thansmallbusinessSmallbusinessOther thansmallbusinessSmallbusiness
To promote small business participation in federal contracting, there is a government-wide goal to award about a quarter of contract dollars to small businesses.
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How did they buy?
The overall competition rate in fiscal year 2022 was 68%— civilian agencies competition rate was almost 84% and Defense agencies about 58%.
$238.6B$232.1BCompetedDefenseCivilian
$175.8B$47.1BNot competedDefenseCivilian
Fixed priceCost typeTime & material/labor hourOther
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What is the trend in spending through Other Transaction Agreements?
20182019202020212022591418DOLLARS IN BILLIONSGovernmentwide Other Transactions

Other transaction agreements offer agencies a flexible way to purchase goods and services. In fiscal year 2022, agencies spent about $27 million on COVID-19 related purchases through these agreements.

Data on other transaction agreements are not included in data on federal contract obligations.

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Interested in learning more?

Visit gao.gov

Source: GAO analysis of Federal Procurement Data System data as of May 2023.

All obligation amounts are presented in constant FY 2022 dollars. The figures above exclude missing or “other” values that represent less than one percent of total obligations.