Federal agencies spent over $500 billion for contracted products and services in 2012, according to federal data. Between 2000 and 2012, such spending grew more quickly than inflation and also grew as a percentage of total federal spending.
The Congressional Budget Office has performed a brief analysis of federal contracts in an attempt to ascertain the size and cost of the federal government’s contracted workforce. Regrettably, CBO is unaware of any comprehensive information about the size of the federal government’s contracted workforce. However, using a database of federal contracts, CBO determined that federal agencies spent over $500 billion for contracted products and services in 2012. Between 2000 and 2012, such spending grew more quickly than inflation and also grew as a percentage of total federal spending. The category of spending that grew the most in dollar terms was contracts for professional, administrative, and management services, and the category that grew the most in percentage terms was contracts for medical services. Because the database that CBO used is not complete and because questions have been raised about its accuracy, those findings should be considered approximate.
