Updated April 2026 · FY2024 USAspending.gov data
California Federal Spending
CA · Rank #1 of 51
California is one of the dominant destinations for federal contract dollars. Federal agencies obligated $56.7B to recipients in California in the most recent fiscal year, capturing roughly 10.7% of all U.S. federal contract spending across 322 active contractors.
Why California Ranks Where It Does
Mega-tier states like California typically host either a major military presence (large bases, naval shipyards, or test ranges), a federal headquarters cluster (intelligence, energy, NASA), or both. Department of Defense dominates the local agency mix, which is consistent with that pattern. State-level totals at this scale usually reflect long-term federal infrastructure investments rather than year-to-year procurement choices.
For broader context, see the federal spending by state breakdown, which ranks every state and DC against this same dataset, or look at spending by industry to see which categories dominate nationally.
Top Contractors in California
| Rank | Contractor | Obligations |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Optum Public Sector Solutions, Inc. | $647.1M |
| #2 | Lockheed Martin Corporation | $540.6M |
| #3 | Mckesson Corporation | $289.3M |
| #4 | The Boeing Company | $276.3M |
| #5 | Electric Boat Corporation | $275.8M |
| #6 | Triwest Healthcare Alliance Corp. | $269.3M |
| #7 | Humana Government Business Inc. | $258.0M |
| #8 | Raytheon Company | $249.1M |
| #9 | Huntington Ingalls Incorporated | $239.4M |
| #10 | Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. | $222.5M |
California's federal-contracting base is broad. Optum Public Sector Solutions, Inc. is the largest single recipient at $647.1M (about 1.1% of state total), but no contractor dominates — the state's spending is spread across many recipients, which makes the total more resilient to any one contract decision.
What the Federal Government Buys in California
The largest spending category in California is Defense & Weapons at $19.9B. That category mix tells you what the federal government is buying from California contractors — services, manufactured goods, research, or construction. The Federal Procurement Data System uses the Product and Service Code (PSC) hierarchy to tag every award; the breakdown shown on this page rolls those PSCs into the major categories.
How These Numbers Are Calculated
Every total on this page is computed from the USAspending.gov award dataset, filtered to recipients with a primary place of performance in California. Recipient identity is reconciled to the SAM.gov Unique Entity ID, which ties subsidiaries that file separately to a single parent record where the federal data supports it. Industry rollups follow the Product and Service Code hierarchy maintained by the Federal Procurement Data System. Read the full methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions About California Federal Spending
How much federal contract spending does California receive?
California received $56,717,994,566 in federal contract obligations in the most recent fiscal year (FY2024), based on USAspending.gov data. That ranks California #1 of 51 states (and DC) for federal contract spending.
Who is the biggest federal contractor in California?
Optum Public Sector Solutions, Inc. is the largest federal contractor based in California, with $647.1M in obligations. The full top-contractor list is shown above; click any name to open that contractor's profile, including all agencies, categories, and individual awards.
Which federal agencies spend the most in California?
Department of Defense is the dominant federal customer in California at $31.2B, followed by Department of Health and Human Services. The agency panel shows the full mix; large states usually show several agencies, while smaller-spending states tend to be dominated by one.
What does the federal government buy in California?
The biggest spending category in California is Defense & Weapons at $19.9B. Categories follow the PSC hierarchy from the Federal Procurement Data System and span services, products, research, and construction.
Where does this data come from?
Every figure is sourced from USAspending.gov, the official federal spending database mandated by the DATA Act. Recipient identity is reconciled to SAM.gov Unique Entity ID registrations. Data is public domain and refreshes whenever USAspending.gov publishes a new release.
Source: U.S. federal government, USAspending.gov & SAM.gov. Data is public domain. Cite as: "TaxDollarData, California federal spending, FY2024. Data: USAspending.gov."
Last updated 2026-04-09 · figures represent federal obligations for FY2024.
The this entity record above pulls directly from USASpending.gov federal awards data. What follows is the per-entity context — how this entity sits in the broader U.S. federal government spending distribution and which underlying factors drive the headline numbers.
The methodology behind every numeric value on this page is publicly documented on the USASpending.gov federal awards data portal and described in detail on this site’s methodology page. Refresh cadence varies by underlying series; the page surfaces the as-of date for each number so readers can trace any figure back to the source release.
Practical use of this page is in combination with the comparison and ranking pages elsewhere on the site, which surface the same data for this entity’s peers within U.S. federal contracts, grants, and awards. A single-entity reading without peer context can be misleading when an entity is an outlier on one axis but typical on another.