Updated April 2026 · FY2024 USAspending.gov data
Rhode Island Federal Spending
RI · Rank #44 of 51
Rhode Island accounts for a meaningful but mid-tier share of federal contracting: 17 active contractors and $2.9B in federal obligations, or roughly 0.55% of the national total. The state shows up in specific niches rather than across every category.
Why Rhode Island Ranks Where It Does
Mid-tier states like Rhode Island usually cluster their federal spending around one or two dominant relationships — most often Department of Defense — rather than spreading it broadly. That concentration means a single base closure, contract recompete, or agency reorganization can move the state's total noticeably. Watch the agency panel for early signals of structural shifts.
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 Rhode Island
| Rank | Contractor | Obligations |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Optum Public Sector Solutions, Inc. | $33.2M |
| #2 | Lockheed Martin Corporation | $27.8M |
| #3 | Mckesson Corporation | $14.9M |
| #4 | The Boeing Company | $14.2M |
| #5 | Electric Boat Corporation | $14.2M |
| #6 | Triwest Healthcare Alliance Corp. | $13.8M |
| #7 | Humana Government Business Inc. | $13.2M |
| #8 | Raytheon Company | $12.8M |
| #9 | Huntington Ingalls Incorporated | $12.3M |
| #10 | Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. | $11.4M |
Rhode Island's federal-contracting base is broad. Optum Public Sector Solutions, Inc. is the largest single recipient at $33.2M (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 Rhode Island
The largest spending category in Rhode Island is Defense & Weapons at $1.0B. That category mix tells you what the federal government is buying from Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island. 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 Rhode Island Federal Spending
How much federal contract spending does Rhode Island receive?
Rhode Island received $2,912,688,797 in federal contract obligations in the most recent fiscal year (FY2024), based on USAspending.gov data. That ranks Rhode Island #44 of 51 states (and DC) for federal contract spending.
Who is the biggest federal contractor in Rhode Island?
Optum Public Sector Solutions, Inc. is the largest federal contractor based in Rhode Island, with $33.2M 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 Rhode Island?
Department of Defense is the dominant federal customer in Rhode Island at $1.6B, 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 Rhode Island?
The biggest spending category in Rhode Island is Defense & Weapons at $1.0B. 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, Rhode Island 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.
Every number on this page links back to USASpending.gov federal awards data; the methodology page describes the inputs, refresh cadence, and known limitations of the underlying data product.
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.