Set-Aside Alert exclusive research:

Which federal agencies are best for professional services set-asides?

For small federal contractors offering professional services, it helps to “go to where the money is.”

That is the case for professional services set-asides, which are abundant if you know where to look.

For example, four federal departments have professional services set-aside contracts totaling $1 billion or more and expiring by December 2017, according to Set-Aside Alert’s analysis of data from the Federal Procurement Data System. Those contracts are likely to remain as set-asides when recompeted.

Set-Aside Alert identified the top 31 departments and agencies with professional services set-asides expiring by December 2017.

Set-Aside Alert also identified, in those departments and agencies, the 20 sub-agencies that had such set-asides totaling $80 million or more each for that period.

The big picture

In the big picture, Set-Aside Alert counted more than $9 billion in federal small business set-aside contracts in professional services expiring through the end of 2017.

Many of those contracts are expected to become new opportunities because contracting officers generally want to preserve successful set-asides to meet their small business goals.

In addition, 8(a) set-asides are required to be recompeted as 8(a) set-asides when they expire.

For the purpose of identifying top agencies for professional services set-asides, Set-Aside Alert’s data set totaled $11.4 billion. This was comprised of the $9 billion in contracts mentioned above, reported as “Full and Open Competition after Exclusion of Sources,” along with $1.3 billion in 8(a) sole-source set-asides and $942 million in set-asides reported as “Full and Open Competition,” with a sub-notation of “set-aside.” The last group--assuming they were set-asides in reality--apparently was not reported correctly into FPDS.

Top Agencies for Professional Services Set-Aside Opportunities
in 2016-17

1.	DOD/Army	$1.9 billion
2.	DOD/Air Force	$1.4 billion
3.	DOD/Navy	$1.0 billion
4.	HHS	$1.0 billion
5.	DOD	$971 million
6.	DHS	$815 million
7.	NASA	$700 million
8.	VA	$640 million
9.	Commerce	$389 million
10.	State	$293 million
11.	USDA	$270 million
12.	Interior	$269 million
13.	DOT	$253 million
14.	GSA	$234 million
15.	Treasury	$210 million
16.	Justice	$162 million
17.	Energy	$150 million
18.	USAID	$90 million
19.	Education	$84 million
20.	SEC	$81 million
21.	Labor	$70 million
22.	HUD	$68 million
23.	FEC	$57 million
24.	EPA	$53 million
25.	EOP	$24 million
26.	SBA	$23 million
27.	NRC	$19 million
28.	SSA	$16 million
29.	NSF	$14 million
30.	NARA	$14 million
31.	OPM	$14 million

Leading sub-agencies for professional services set-aside opportunities in 2016-2017

Health & Human Services
	CMS	$278 million
	NIH	$259 million
	CDC	$191 million
	FDA	$179 million
Defense (not mil. services)
	DISA	$304 million
	Missile Defense	$175 million
	DLA	$107 million
	DHS	$105 million
Homeland Security
	Coast Guard	$216 million
	Procurement	$122 million
	USCIS	$116 million
	TSA	$110 million
	CBP	$107 million
Commerce
	NOAA	$259 million
General Services Admin.
	FAS	$169 million
Interior
	Office of Policy	$160 million
Agriculture
	CFO	$107 million
Transportation
	FAA	$92 million
Treasury
	Fiscal Service	$90 million
	IRS	$86 million

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Column: M&A transactions with government contractors

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