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By: FEDweek StaffThe GAO’s latest annual accounting of spending on contracts by federal agencies said the total topped $694 billion in 2022, an increase of $3.6 billion over 2021, adjusted for inflation. That includes about $40 billion in pandemic-related spending.
DoD again outspent all non-defense agencies combined, about $415 billion to $280 billion. DoD’s spending was about evenly split between products, about $210 billion, and services, about $205 billion, while spending at non-defense agencies was much more heavily concentrated on services, about $230 billion, than products, about $49 billion.
For both defense and non-defense spending, drugs and biologicals accounted for the largest amount in the products category. Other top items on the defense side included aircraft, combat ships, missiles and fuel, while on the non-defense side they included items such as medical supplies, IT and telecom. General professional support, medical and general health care and engineering/technical support were in the top five for both in the services category.
Other data included that: while non-defense agencies awarded about 84 percent of their spending after competition, the figure at DoD was just 58 percent (both were up by about 6 percentage points from 2021); and 25.3 percent of spending by non-defense agencies went to small businesses vs. 20.3 percent at DoD.
The spending dashboard also includes agency-by-agency spending levels and breakdowns by top categories.
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