“Use-It-or-Lose-It” – September Federal Spending
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The month of September marks the end of the federal government’s fiscal year (“FY”) and the beginning of their annual year-end spending spree. Federal agencies scramble to spend what’s left in their budget, in fear that leaving excess funds may prompt Congress to spend less in the following year. It is known as “use-it-or-lose-it” spending, and it happens every year.
The federal government’s contract spending in September 2018 totaled nearly $98 billion. In the final seven days of FY 2018, federal agencies spent $53 billion, which is more than they spent in the entire month of August 2018 ($47 billion). Overall, the federal government spent approximately $550 billion on all of FY 2018 contracts, but nearly 18% of those contracts were in September.
One source federal contracting officers turn to is the FedBiz Directory. The FedBiz Directory is a searchable database of small businesses registered for federal contracting that highlights their business to contracting officers and prime contractors. The database is searchable by keywords, business name, CAGE code, DUNS No., location, socio-economic status, NAICS, PSC, Capability Statement, past performance, FEMA registered, smart cards, points of contact, etc.
On average, each federal contract in September 2018 was worth $190,190 while the largest contract was worth $2.9 billion. This was an average spend of $3.2 billion per day on contracts throughout the month of September. On the last two business days of the month, spending exceeded $10 billion per day.
In total, $25.2 billion in contracts flowed to the D.C. Beltway (Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C.) – that is 26% of all September spending. Texas and California both received significant contract spending with $8.9 billion and $7.1 billion, respectively.
Overall, 66 agencies signed contracts in September 2018, with the top five agencies alone accounting 86% percent of all these contracts. These agencies are included the DOD ($61.2 billion), Health and Human Services ($5.7 billion), VA ($5.4 billion), Homeland Security ($4.2 billion), and the Dept. of State ($4.0 billion).
This spending creates an opportunity for federal contractors who have established relationships with contracting officers to support their immediate needs. FedBiz Access works with small business to help them establish their foundation with the federal government through their initial registration to research and marketing to the right buyers. When federal buyers need to spend, they turn to trusted sources. FedBiz Access helps companies build a clear path from registration to award.
