Contracting intelligence for small and minority-owned businesses, from the TIKC advisory team.
DOJ published its final rule on August 18 formalizing the National Fraud Enforcement Division — effective August 24. The McDonald Memo identifies government procurement fraud…
Read the storyThe National Fraud Enforcement Division is real, funded, staffed, and operational in every federal district as of August 24, 2026. Procurement fraud is its stated criminal priority. Review your compliance program, audit your certifications, train your people, and if you find a problem — self-disclose before the Fraud Division finds it first. Brick by brick — compliance built on accurate records does not collapse under criminal investigation.
Source: The Bottom Line
Selected awarding agencies · latest completed fiscal year. Net obligations, not budgets or open opportunities.
| Agency | Obligations | Reporting period | Source · freshness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense · prime contracts | 439.96 billion USD | FY 2026 · Oct 1, 2025–Sep 30, 2026 | USAspending.gov (opens in a new tab) Dataset updated Checked |
| Department of Veterans Affairs · prime contracts | 85.75 billion USD | FY 2026 · Oct 1, 2025–Sep 30, 2026 | USAspending.gov (opens in a new tab) Dataset updated Checked |
| Department of Homeland Security · prime contracts | 73.28 billion USD | FY 2026 · Oct 1, 2025–Sep 30, 2026 | USAspending.gov (opens in a new tab) Dataset updated Checked |
Net prime-contract transaction obligations, award types A–D, by awarding agency. Includes deobligations; not agency budgets, revenue, or available bids. Historical fiscal-year totals may be revised. DoD procurement records have a 90-day publication delay. Source links open agency profiles or official agency summaries; contract totals use award-type filters A–D from the official API documentation (opens in a new tab). Full USD amounts are available on hover and to screen readers.
Selected FAR and SBA contracting-rule notices—not bid deadlines. Confirm the closing time and submission method in the original notice. Date-only entries are removed at the start of their closing date (UTC).
Small Business Size Standards (opens in a new tab)
Federal Register · 2026-19546 · published
Checked · Official PDF (opens in a new tab)
Federal Register · 2026-19444 · published
Checked · Official PDF (opens in a new tab)
Federal Register · 2026-19443 · published
Checked · Official PDF (opens in a new tab)
In government contracting, bidding too low can lose you the award. Evaluators test whether your price is realistic for the work, and a number that…
Advisory services · not reporting
TIKC Advisory
Talk through registrations, FAR clauses and reporting obligations with a TIKC advisor.
Book a free strategy callA company that makes steel for Navy ships let a tester change results so weak steel looked like it passed. It is paying about $10.9…
A quiet word with a competitor about who wins which job feels like cooperation. It is a federal antitrust crime. Bid rigging and collusion carry…
A federal IT contractor and its owner agreed to pay $4.8 million after allegedly paying fees to 8(a) firms to win set-aside work, then doing…
When an audit or investigation looms, the instinct to clean up a file is a catastrophic one. Deleting an email or backdating a document can…
A government contracting official was charged after allegedly approving invoices that funneled money back to a side business he profited from, aided by a contractor…
A whistleblower suit can sit under court seal for years while the government investigates you in secret. Understanding the seal, the first-to-file rule, and the…
Foundational reading
Reference reads that stay useful after the news cycle moves on. Kept separate from current coverage.
Initial TIKC editorial selection
Inside The Bid · Video
Natasha Velez · with Melanie Patterson
A conversation on two parts of a federal proposal: how to price it and how to draft it.
Watch on YouTube (opens in a new tab)The player loads from YouTube only when you press play.
The archive
Page 1 of 26 · Newest first
In government contracting, bidding too low can lose you the award. Evaluators test whether your price is realistic for the work, and a number that…
Handing over the work does not always end your obligation. A warranty clause can keep you on the hook to fix or replace what you…
On many multiple-award vehicles, landing the contract only gets you in the room. The real work is competed again as task orders, and the government…
That five-year contract you won might really be one year the government can extend four times, entirely at its discretion. Option years shape your cash…
You can pay your executives whatever you want. But on cost-type government work, there is a cap on how much of that pay the government…
If you hold a GSA Schedule, a slice of every sale is a fee you collect for the government and have to hand back. Underreport…
The wave of enforcement hitting contractors this fall shares a quiet lesson: you can be held responsible for a subcontractor or vendor’s compliance failure. If…
A fixed-price contract can turn into a money-loser when material costs spike. An Economic Price Adjustment clause is the built-in tool that lets your price…
A contract can be legal to win but illegal to perform if the government ends up supervising your people like employees, or if you start…
The government can direct you to change the work mid-contract, and sometimes it changes the work without ever saying so. The Changes Clause entitles you…
On most defense contracts you bill through an electronic system called WAWF, and every invoice you submit is a formal claim for payment. A sloppy…
If you win an SBIR or STTR award, the research you create comes with special data-rights protection the government does not get with most contracts…
Weekly newsletter
The Briefing is the TIKC weekly federal contracting newsletter covering policy changes, opportunities and practical next steps for small businesses.
