Federal agencies obligated $520.9 billion on contracts in the first eight months of fiscal 2026, according to a GovConFeed analysis of transaction records published on USAspending.gov. That is 22.5% more than the $425.1 billion of October 2024 through May 2025.
The Department of Defense accounts for 51% of the $95.8 billion gain, rising from $273.6 billion to $322.7 billion. The Department of Homeland Security accounts for another 31%. Its contract obligations went from $11.6 billion to $41.1 billion, which is 3.5 times the year-earlier level.
October came in at less than half of the prior year
The fiscal year opened with a government shutdown that began Oct. 1 and ended Nov. 12, 2025. October contract obligations were $21.2 billion, against $48.7 billion in October 2024. The records cannot show whether, or how much of, that gap the shutdown accounts for. Each of the seven months after that exceeded the same month a year earlier, January by the narrowest margin (0.5%) and March by the widest: $102.9 billion, against $53.8 billion in March 2025.
| Month | FY2025 | FY2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| October | $48.7B | $21.2B | -56.5% |
| November | $44.8B | $50.7B | +13.1% |
| December | $63.1B | $79.5B | +25.9% |
| January | $55.5B | $55.8B | +0.5% |
| February | $43.5B | $54.2B | +24.8% |
| March | $53.8B | $102.9B | +91.3% |
| April | $55.5B | $83.3B | +50.2% |
| May | $60.3B | $73.4B | +21.7% |
| October–May | $425.1B | $520.9B | +22.5% |
Customs and Border Protection is 81% of the DHS increase
Customs and Border Protection obligated $25.7 billion on contracts in the period, up from $1.9 billion. That $23.8 billion rise is 81% of the department's $29.5 billion increase. The Coast Guard went from $1.7 billion to $6.0 billion, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement from $1.9 billion to $4.5 billion. The Federal Emergency Management Agency moved the other way: $2.3 billion a year ago, $167 million this year.
The descriptions in the procurement system say what the money buys. For six of the eight companies with the largest DHS contract obligations in the period, the largest new award is for border barrier construction or the steel for it. For Fisher Sand & Gravel Co, the largest DHS recipient in the period, the CBP record of its largest new contract reads in full: “CONSTRUCT VERTICAL BORDER BARRIER.” For the other two, it is a Coast Guard letter contract for Arctic Security Cutters.
| Company | DHS obligations, Oct–May | Agency's description of the largest new award |
|---|---|---|
| Fisher Sand & Gravel Co | $9.5B | CONSTRUCT VERTICAL BORDER BARRIER |
| Barnard Construction Company, Incorporated | $4.5B | BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION FOR EL PASO SECTOR - EPT-5 |
| Spencer Construction LLC | $2.4B | BORDER BARRIER CONSTRUCTION |
| Southwest Valley Constructors Co | $2.2B | AWARD OF CONSTRUCTION TASK ORDER FOR BORDER WALL IN BIG BEND TEXAS, SEGMENT IDENTIFIED AS BBT-4 |
| AMI Metals, Inc | $1.5B | BULK STEEL FOR SOUTHWEST BORDER BARRIER CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS |
| SLS Federal Services LLC | $1.1B | VERTICAL BARRIER CONSTRUCTION |
| Bollinger Shipyards Lockport, L.L.C. | $1.0B | LETTER CONTRACT AWARD OF ARCTIC SECURITY CUTTERS |
| Davie Defense Inc. | $1.0B | THE PURPOSE OF THIS LETTER CONTRACT IS FOR THE DELIVERY OF FIVE (5) EACH MULTI-PURPOSE POLAR SHIP (MPPS-100) VESSELS HEREAFTER REFERRED TO AS ARCTIC SECURITY CUTTERS (ASCS) |
Fisher Sand & Gravel Co received $9.5 billion in DHS contract obligations during the eight months. Barnard Construction Company, Incorporated received $4.5 billion from DHS and $5.9 billion across all agencies. Neither appears among the 200 largest contract recipient records of the same period a year earlier.
USAID, Treasury and State obligated less
Contract obligations at the U.S. Agency for International Development went from $2.5 billion to $0.6 billion. Treasury went from $5.7 billion to $3.6 billion, and State from $4.5 billion to $3.8 billion.
| Agency | FY2025 Oct–May | FY2026 Oct–May | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Defense | $273.6B | $322.7B | +49.1B |
| Veterans Affairs | $38.2B | $43.9B | +5.7B |
| Energy | $35.8B | $41.9B | +6.2B |
| Homeland Security | $11.6B | $41.1B | +29.5B |
| GSA | $13.3B | $15.2B | +1.8B |
| Health and Human Services | $9.1B | $10.3B | +1.3B |
| NASA | $8.1B | $7.9B | -0.2B |
| Transportation | $4.4B | $7.4B | +3.0B |
| Justice | $4.7B | $5.6B | +0.9B |
| Agriculture | $4.7B | $5.1B | +0.4B |
| State | $4.5B | $3.8B | -0.7B |
| Treasury | $5.7B | $3.6B | -2.0B |
| Interior | $3.2B | $3.0B | -0.1B |
| USAID | $2.5B | $0.6B | -1.9B |
A border-barrier contractor absent from last year's list is among the nine largest recipients
Lockheed Martin Corporation, The Boeing Company and Raytheon Company are the three largest recipients so far this year, counting each registered company name on its own, with parents and differently named subsidiaries not combined. A year earlier the top three on the same basis were Lockheed Martin Corporation, Electric Boat Corporation and The Boeing Company. Fisher Sand & Gravel Co is among this year's nine largest and was not among last year's 200 largest records at all. Barnard Construction Company, Incorporated, also absent last year, comes next at $5.9 billion. Its lead over the company after it, $365 million, is smaller than the $401 million cutoff of the records pulled, so its place is not certain.
Electric Boat went from $17.4 billion to $10.8 billion; its year-earlier figure includes one $8.4 billion modification in April 2025 that the Navy recorded as “SSN 812 CONSTRUCTION (BOAT 2, FY 24).” Optum Public Sector Solutions went from $9.4 billion to $4.6 billion.
| Recipient | FY2026 Oct–May | FY2025 Oct–May |
|---|---|---|
| Lockheed Martin Corporation | $38.0B | $31.0B |
| The Boeing Company | $24.5B | $12.5B |
| Raytheon Company | $15.0B | $8.5B |
| TriWest Healthcare Alliance Corp | $10.8B | $5.7B |
| Electric Boat Corporation | $10.8B | $17.4B |
| McKesson Corporation | $9.9B | $7.3B |
| Fisher Sand & Gravel Co | $9.5B | not among the 200 largest |
| Northrop Grumman Systems Corp | $7.5B | $4.6B |
| Huntington Ingalls Incorporated | $6.5B | $6.8B |
What It Means for Contractors
Defense and Homeland Security together account for 82% of the increase. Energy (+6.2B) and Veterans Affairs (+5.7B) follow. Inside DHS, the six companies in the table whose largest award is for barrier work account for $21.2 billion of the department's $41.1 billion. Net obligations at USAID, Treasury and FEMA are lower.
How we did this
GovConFeed queried the public USAspending.gov API on Sept. 19, 2026 for contract obligations (award types A, B, C and D: BPA calls, purchase orders, delivery orders and definitive contracts) with action dates from Oct. 1 to May 31 in each fiscal year. Figures are net obligations: de-obligations reduce them. Monthly and agency totals were pulled separately and sum to the same figure. The window stops at May 31 because Defense contract data is published on a 90-day delay. We examined each month's 25 largest increases and 25 largest decreases. Three awards carry an entry and a matching reversal, the largest $1.7 billion. A $440 million Fisher Sand & Gravel Co entry booked in December and reversed in January exceeds January's entire margin over the prior year. The $1.7 billion entry was booked March 3, reversed April 3 and re-entered April 16, so it may belong to April; March has the widest margin either way. The recipient table is built from the 200 largest recipient records of each period, so a company spread across small registered entities is understated. This analysis does not establish why any agency's spending changed.
Sources
- USAspending.gov API: spending_over_time, spending_by_category, spending_by_award and spending_by_transaction endpoints
- FPDS: availability of Department of Defense data
- NADO: Longest Government Shutdown in U.S. History Ends After 43 Days
