Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 08/2012

Contract Spending by the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development

David J. Berteau, Guy Ben-Ari, Gregory Sanders, Priscilla Hermann, David Morrow

July 2012

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Abstract

This report examines the budgetary trends and trends in contract spending in the Department of State (DoS) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The report is divided into six sections, including the introduction and an appendix. Section 2 presents the top line budgets of DoS and the U.S. International Assistance Program (IAP), which also includes the USAID budget, for the years 1990–2011. Section 3 analyzes federal-level funding for international economic assistance and breaks down the contributions by various government agencies. Section 4 examines top-line obligations by agency and the breakdown of spending between products and services. Section 5 analyzes DoS and USAID contract spending using three key contract characteristics: extent of competition, type of funding mechanism, and type of contract vehicle. The last section analyzes the industrial base supporting DoS and USAID, comparing the top 20 contractors in 2006 and 2011. It also presents a breakdown of the industrial base into three size categories (small, medium, and large companies) and compares the market share of each throughout the years 2000–2011.