No-Bid Government Contracts: What They Are and Who Gets Them
What sole-source contracts are, why agencies award them without competition, and which companies receive the most no-bid federal dollars.
Read article →Updated April 2026 · USAspending.gov data
Federal Spending Blog
Data-driven analysis of federal contracting — who gets the money, how it splits across agencies, and how the picture is shifting under DOGE. Posts here pair narrative with live data from USAspending.gov, the official federal spending database. The current dataset covers 2,005 contractors and $529.6B in FY2024 obligations.
What These Posts Cover
Each post answers a single question with the federal record. "Who are the biggest government contractors?" becomes a ranked list with current obligation totals and primary-agency notes, linking to the live contractor ranking. "Where does federal spending go geographically?" becomes a state-by-state breakdown sourced from USAspending.gov location data. "Which agencies use what kinds of contracts?" pulls the agency × PSC matrix directly from the dataset.
Where a post discusses concentration or growth, the underlying calculations are shown so the claim is auditable. The top five defense primes, for example, are listed by name with their FY2024 obligations next to a national-total denominator, not as a vague "they get most of it" claim. That makes the posts useful as both reading material and source-citations for journalists, policy researchers, and citizens following the spending.
Latest Posts
Federal Spending by State: Where Government Dollars Land
A complete ranking of every state plus DC by federal contract spending — where the money goes, what it buys, and why some states pull more than others.
Read article →Biggest Government Contractors: Who Gets the Money
The top 25 federal contractors ranked by FY2024 obligations — who they are, what they provide, and how concentration looks across defense, IT, and healthcare.
Read article →Federal Spending by Agency: Where Tax Dollars Go
A breakdown of federal contract spending across every major agency, from Defense to Health and Human Services and the civilian workforce.
Read article →Defense Spending Breakdown 2026: Top Contractors
The largest defense contractors ranked by Department of Defense obligations, with category and program-level breakdowns.
Read article →Editorial Standards
Posts cite the federal record. Specifically, every numerical claim either links to a live table on this site (which is itself sourced from USAspending.gov) or quotes a figure directly from USAspending.gov, SAM.gov, the Federal Procurement Data System, or an agency-published statement. We do not estimate, model, or extrapolate; if the public record does not support a claim, the post does not make it.
Posts also do not make investment recommendations. Many of the largest federal contractors are publicly traded — Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman — but federal contract data alone is insufficient grounds for buying or selling securities, and we do not present it that way.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are blog topics chosen?
Blog topics follow the questions readers most often ask the dataset: who the largest contractors are, how spending splits by agency, where DOGE actions are landing, and how state-level totals compare. Each post pairs narrative with current USAspending.gov data and links to the relevant detail pages on this site so the underlying records are one click away.
Is this opinion content or data analysis?
Posts here lean heavily toward data analysis. Where a piece offers interpretation — for example, that a category is "concentrated" or "growing fast" — the underlying obligations are shown alongside the claim and tied back to USAspending.gov records. Posts do not predict contractor risk, recommend stocks, or speculate about future awards; the public record does not support those claims and we do not make them.
How current are the figures cited in posts?
Each post is dated and links to live data tables. The numerical claims it makes hold for the dataset published at the date of writing. As USAspending.gov refreshes (federal agencies publish daily updates), the live tables update automatically; the prose is updated quarterly to keep narrative claims aligned with the latest figures. The current refresh covers FY2024, last updated April 2026.
Where can I verify what a post claims?
Every post includes inline links to USAspending.gov, the underlying contractor or agency profile on this site, and where applicable, SAM.gov registrations. To independently verify a claim like "Lockheed Martin received $X in FY2024," open USAspending.gov, search the recipient name, and read off the obligations panel.
Do posts cover DOGE?
Yes — DOGE-related posts track terminations, pauses, and reductions sourced from agency announcements, FPDS contract modifications, and verified reporting, then cross-referenced with USAspending records. Coverage is descriptive: what was cut, by whom, when. We do not assert savings totals beyond what the federal record substantiates and we flag prominently where DOGE-claimed numbers diverge from contracted ceilings.
Methodology
All blog posts use the same data layer as the rest of the site: USAspending.gov reconciled to SAM.gov registrations and grouped by Federal Procurement Data System PSC categories. Read the full methodology.
Source: U.S. federal government, USAspending.gov and SAM.gov. Data is public domain. Cite as: "TaxDollarData blog post, FY2024. Data: USAspending.gov."
Last updated 2026-04-09 · covering 2,005 contractors and $529.6B in obligations.