Fiscal 2020 Civilian Contracting Hits Record $228 Billion October 2020 The fight against the Covid-19 pandemic drove civilian contract spending across the federal government to a record high of $228 billion in fiscal 2020, which ended on Sept. 30, according to Bloomberg Government data available as of Oct. 6. The double-digit increase of about 17%, or $33.5 billion, over fiscal 2019 spending, dwarfs the single-digit year-over-year increases in recent years. Spending at the departments of Health and Human Services (HHA) and Veterans Affairs (VA) was responsible for a large part of the increase as well as increases at the nation’s nuclear research laboratories run by the Department of Energy (DOE).
Civilian Federal Contracting Jumps 17% in FY 2020 Dollars in billions; by fiscal year
$228 $181
$187
$194
$171
FY 2016
FY 2017
FY 2018
FY 2019
FY 2020
Source: Bloomberg Government Note: Does not include Department of Defense
Select Agencies Drive Growth At HHS, contracting obligations jumped from $26.6 billion in fiscal 2019 to $41.2 billion in fiscal 2020, a leap of about 55%. Spending for ventilators, pandemic response, vaccines, biomedical research, and other efforts to fight Covid-19 was responsible for virtually all of the increase at HHS. The top contractor for HHS in fiscal 2020 was Merck & Co Inc. with $1.9 billion in obligations, providing HHS with vaccines. Moderna Inc., which has not done business with HHS in recent years, also received nearly $1 billion for vaccine development. Overall, HHS contracting increases accounted for about 44% of the total increase in civilian contracting across the government in fiscal 2020.
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