September 2026 Federal Awards So Far: $10.7B Civilian in 13 Days, 50,084 New Contracts, and the DoD Number That Will Not Appear Until December
USASpending pulled Sep 13, 2026. 63,212 contract awards had actions between Sep 1 and Sep 13. 50,084 were brand new. Top 15 agencies obligated $10.74B, led by DHS ($2.04B), VA ($1.71B), and HHS ($1.48B). Defense is zero in the table, and that is not a slow Pentagon. It is the 90-day DoD reporting lag. Here is what is real, what is hidden, and what to bid in the final 17 days of FY2026.
63,212 federal contracts had an action in the first 13 days of September 2026. 50,084 of them were new awards. The top 15 agencies obligated $10.74B.
Defense obligated $0.
That last number is the whole story of every "year-end surge" chart you will see this month. It is wrong, and it is wrong in a predictable way. USASpending publishes Department of Defense contract data on a 90-day delay. DoD's last month with a real number is June 2026 at $17.65B (partial). July, August, and September read zero. Same window last year, Sep 1-13, 2025, DoD alone was $16.61B.
So the civilian sprint is visible right now, in real time, and the Pentagon's is not. If you sell to civilian agencies, this is your data. If you sell to DoD, you are bidding blind until mid-December, and the alert you set today is the only way you hear about it before your competitor does.
Search September awards live · Recompete Radar · Set an alert on your NAICS
Who is actually spending: Sep 1-13, 2026
Contract obligations by awarding agency, Sep 1-13, 2026, all contract types (A-D). Source: USASpending spending_by_category, pulled Sep 13.
| Agency | Obligated Sep 1-13, 2026 | Same window 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Homeland Security | $2.04B | $2.35B |
| Department of Veterans Affairs | $1.71B | $3.19B |
| Department of Health and Human Services | $1.48B | $1.68B |
| General Services Administration | $1.15B | $1.25B |
| Department of State | $782M | $703M |
| Department of Transportation | $699M | $558M |
| NASA | $561M | $1.11B |
| Department of the Interior | $482M | $267M |
| Department of Commerce | $383M | $361M |
| Department of the Treasury | $360M | $411M |
| Department of Justice | $328M | $360M |
| Department of Agriculture | $309M | $579M |
| Department of Energy | $293M | $640M |
| Department of Defense | $0 (not yet reported) | $16.61B |
Two things jump out.
First, VA is running at roughly half of last year's pace in this window ($1.71B vs $3.19B). VA obligated $16.6B in July 2026, its biggest month, so a lot of the year-end money already went out the door. If you sell to VA, September is not where the surge is. It already happened.
Second, DHS is the largest civilian buyer in the window and it is not close. Two of the three largest new awards of the month are Coast Guard design-build construction.
What they are buying
Top NAICS codes by obligated dollars, Sep 1-13, 2026:
| NAICS | Description | Obligated |
|---|---|---|
| 236220 | Commercial and Institutional Building Construction | $1.89B |
| 541512 | Computer Systems Design Services | $928M |
| 541519 | Other Computer Related Services | $870M |
| 541330 | Engineering Services | $790M |
| 541611 | Administrative Management Consulting | $515M |
| 541511 | Custom Computer Programming | $496M |
| 518210 | Computing Infrastructure, Data Processing | $321M |
| 238290 | Other Building Equipment Contractors | $303M |
| 541715 | R&D, Physical, Engineering, Life Sciences | $265M |
| 561210 | Facilities Support Services | $257M |
Construction is one code. IT services is three codes that add up to $2.29B, and that is before DoD reports. If you hold a 5415xx NAICS, the civilian side alone is writing about $176M a day in your codes this month.
The 15 largest new awards of September (so far)
New awards only (first action dated Sep 1-13, 2026), sorted by obligated amount.
| PIID | Recipient | Agency | Obligated | Ends | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19AQMM26C0243 | Caddell Construction Co. (DE) | State | $484.2M | 2032-01-01 | Design-build, US Embassy Ulaanbaatar |
| 70Z05026F43000039 | Tutor Perini Corp | DHS / Coast Guard | $315.0M | 2030-09-30 | Design-build to budget |
| 70Z05026F43000038 | Whiting-Turner Contracting | DHS / Coast Guard | $173.7M | 2029-07-14 | Base Seattle CERCLA / PSB |
| 75H70126C00025 | Jaynes Corporation | HHS / IHS | $96.0M | 2029-09-26 | Alamo Navajo Health Center design-build |
| 140R4026C0013 | Carstensen Contracting | Interior / Reclamation | $72.9M | 2028-08-02 | NGWSP Block 2-3 pipeline |
| 70RCSJ26FR0000028 | Amazon Web Services | DHS | $60.4M | 2027-08-31 | AWS cloud hosting |
| 70B01C26F00000386 | Cianbro Harkins JV | DHS / CBP | $59.8M | 2029-09-30 | Design-build construction |
| 36C77626C0075 | ESA South | VA | $45.9M | 2028-09-08 | Construction, labor and materials |
| 2031JG26F56090 | StoneX Financial | Treasury / Mint | $45.0M | 2026-09-08 | Silver bullion raw material |
| 70Z05026F43000037 | Tutor Perini Corp | DHS / Coast Guard | $43.1M | 2029-05-08 | Homeport design-build |
| 36C10B26F0367 | CACI NSS | VA | $40.8M | 2027-09-15 | Interface development, data conversion |
| 70FB8026F00000077 | Fluor Federal Services | DHS / FEMA | $39.1M | 2027-03-13 | Hermit's Peak claims support |
| 36C77626C0090 | Blueway One JV | VA | $33.0M | 2028-09-01 | EHRM infrastructure, Philadelphia |
| 36C77626C0088 | CDEEM Co | VA | $32.7M | 2028-09-07 | General construction |
| 36C77626C0077 | Sawtooth Construction JV II | VA | $32.3M | 2029-03-01 | EHRM infrastructure construction |
Read the right-hand column. Eleven of fifteen are construction or infrastructure. The two IT rows (AWS $60.4M, CACI $40.8M) are both one-year clocks that end in August-September 2027, which makes them next year's recompetes, not this year's.
Top recipients by dollars in the window: Caddell $484M, Tutor Perini $359M, Booz Allen $211M, Boeing $211M, Ameresco $183M, Whiting-Turner $179M, Maximus $164M, Palmetto GBA $162M.
Search any of these companies and you get the full award list, the expiring clocks, and the protest record in one screen.
FY2026 month by month, as reported
| Month | Obligations reported | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2025 | $21.5B | |
| Nov 2025 | $50.7B | |
| Dec 2025 | $79.5B | |
| Jan 2026 | $55.7B | |
| Feb 2026 | $54.2B | |
| Mar 2026 | $102.9B | Largest month so far |
| Apr 2026 | $83.3B | |
| May 2026 | $73.4B | DoD $49.5B |
| Jun 2026 | $51.3B | DoD $17.7B, partial |
| Jul 2026 | $40.8B | DoD not yet reported |
| Aug 2026 | $27.4B | DoD not yet reported |
| Sep 1-13, 2026 | $11.1B | DoD not yet reported |
The curve looks like it is falling off a cliff into September. It is not. It is DoD dropping out of the dataset. Last year's September, once fully reported, was the biggest month of the year. Expect the same when the July-September DoD rows land between October and mid-December.
What to do with 17 days left
Bottom line
$10.74B civilian in 13 days is a real number. $0 for Defense is a reporting artifact. Anyone who publishes a September 2026 federal spending total this month without a DoD lag caveat is either not reading the data or hoping you are not.
Run your NAICS against September. Search is free. No card. Then set the alert so the DoD rows find you in December.
Primary sources: USASpending.gov spending_by_award, spending_by_award_count, spending_by_category (awarding_agency, naics, recipient), and spending_over_time, filtered to contract award types A-D, action dates Sep 1-13, 2026 and Sep 1-13, 2025, pulled Sep 13, 2026. DoD reporting delay per USASpending data documentation (90-day DoD publication lag).
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