USAspending and FPDS, find who holds the work now

Every dollar the federal government obligates on a contract becomes a public record. Who won, how much, which agency, when the period of performance ends, all of it sits in databases anyone can search for free. Most businesses never look. That is a mistake, because this data answers exactly the questions you would otherwise be guessing at: who holds the work now, what it actually pays, and who might want a subcontractor.

1 · Start with USAspending.gov

USAspending.gov is the readable front door to federal award data. Search by keyword, NAICS code, agency, or company name, and you get a list of contracts with dollar amounts, dates, and the name of the business that won. It is built for humans, so start here even when you end up needing FPDS later for detail it leaves out.

2 · Pull the award history for your NAICS code

Search your own NAICS codes and see what has actually been awarded in your space over the last few years. Pull five or ten records instead of one, since a single contract can be an outlier. A cluster of awards gives you a realistic band, high and low, for what agencies actually pay for work like yours, and that band is worth more than any published rate card.

3 · Find the incumbent

Search a specific agency or requirement and you will usually find the business currently holding the contract, the incumbent. Note their name, the award amount, and the period of performance end date. That end date matters more than almost anything else on the page, because contracts overwhelmingly get rebid close to when they expire (more on using that date in hunting recompetes).

4 · Look for primes worth approaching

If a contract is too large or too specialized to win outright, the awardee is still useful information. It is a prime contractor that already does business in your space, with an office that manages subcontractors. A specific introduction that references the actual contract you found lands very differently than a cold email that could have been sent to anyone.

5 · Go to FPDS when USAspending is not enough

FPDS, the Federal Procurement Data System, is the system of record underneath USAspending, older, harder to read, and more complete. Some contract actions, modifications, and older records show up there with detail USAspending has not caught up on. Treat USAspending as your everyday tool and FPDS as the fallback for when you need the full record.