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Iowa· Federal contract awards

Iowa government contracts

152,106 federal contract awards for work performed in Iowa are on file here, worth $35.2B between them. Below: the agencies doing the buying, the contractors doing the winning, the industries the money lands in, and the solicitations still open for bid.

See who wins in Iowa→Open bids in Iowa

Federal contracting in Iowa, by the numbers

Total awarded
$35.2B

$35,209,784,481

Across all 152,106 awards read.

Awards on file
152,106

Federal contract awards with work performed in Iowa.

Average award
$231.5K

$231,482

Mean of the reported amounts. A handful of very large contracts pull this well above what a typical bidder sees.

Median award
$536.4

$536

The middle award. This is the more useful number if you are sizing up whether the work here fits your shop.

Largest single award
$1.1B

$1,127,521,095

The biggest contract on file for this state.

Period covered
Sep 30, 1997 – Jul 1, 2028

Period-of-performance start dates on file. Work already awarded runs through Jun 30, 2108.

Who wins government contracts in Iowa

The contractors holding the most federal contract dollars for work performed in Iowa, ranked by total award value. These are the incumbents: the companies you will be bidding against, and the companies worth calling about subcontracting or teaming before you chase a prime award of your own.

ContractorAwardsTotal awarded
1ROCKWELL COLLINS, INC.J4Q3HP6NHK475,363$10,668,760,48730.3% of total
2DATA LINK SOLUTIONS LLCPPVTFMDK1NN5586$3,885,381,01411.0% of total
3AMERICAN ORDNANCE LLCQHL5DNL1NUK3533$2,863,907,6918.1% of total
4ROCKWELL COLLINS, INC.SWBKVD2EKUH71,371$2,614,396,8407.4% of total
5PMX INDUSTRIES, INC.L331KLRZBPY4138$1,397,491,4924.0% of total
6ROCKWELL COLLINS SIMULATION & TRAINING SOLUTIONS LLCV1GUE46V5MS536$1,310,407,8523.7% of total
7IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYDQDBM7FGJPC5203$1,162,222,5163.3% of total
8BAE SYSTEMS INFORMATION AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS INTEGRATION INC.XQK3GTZJ646492$799,950,3112.3% of total
9SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT CORPORATIONUTJWTSLMFNG48$744,867,3252.1% of total
10MSM GROUP NORTH AMERICA INC.XG69KMM7M6U51$635,200,0001.8% of total
11TELLIGEN, INCW9H9TLXLZCL725$538,855,7861.5% of total
12THE CBE GROUP, INC.CTYHQ6M5VHL114$509,250,6471.4% of total
13MISSION SYSTEMS DAVENPORT INC.F14JJL7BTEQ61,515$432,151,6661.2% of total
14THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWAZ1H9VJS8NG16560$394,615,3271.1% of total
15AMERICAN ORDNANCE LLCNTPELESCCJ888$238,148,7780.7% of total
16APTIM FEDERAL SERVICES, LLCJT9NZ8J1KQF53$223,336,9160.6% of total
17COVENANT CONSTRUCTION SERVICES LLCP3CTJ2KMB3J839$219,763,4890.6% of total
18GEC MARCONI/ROCKWELL COLLINS DSMVYJS27UKK31$199,194,2390.6% of total
19ALLSTEEL LLCHYBHM8PBY8U7816$167,170,7570.5% of total
20COLLINS ENGINE NOZZLES, INCTNGTBC4HJUM5881$152,253,7340.4% of total

Which agencies buy in Iowa

Awarding agencies ranked by total contract dollars in Iowa. Buyers are creatures of habit — the agency at the top of this list runs the same contracting offices, reissues the same requirements, and recompetes the same work on a predictable cycle. Learning one buyer well beats chasing every bid badly.

Awarding agencyAwardsTotal awarded
1Department of Defense133,946$27,028,069,32076.8% of total
2Department of the Treasury223$1,728,295,1824.9% of total
3Department of Energy58$1,137,242,9163.2% of total
4Department of Veterans Affairs6,011$1,030,669,3372.9% of total
5Department of Health and Human Services417$947,921,1012.7% of total
6Department of Agriculture4,905$944,630,9252.7% of total
7Department of Homeland Security934$598,364,3441.7% of total
8General Services Administration2,057$383,254,0241.1% of total
9Department of Education15$272,523,9830.8% of total
10Department of Labor32$268,897,0310.8% of total

What the government buys in Iowa

Industries ranked by total contract dollars, using the six-digit NAICS code recorded on each award. Your NAICS code is not paperwork trivia: it is how a buyer classifies the requirement, how the SBA decides whether you count as a small business for that contract, and therefore which of these awards you were ever eligible to compete for.

Industry (NAICS)AwardsTotal awarded
1OTHER COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING334290808$5,263,446,35714.9% of total
2RADIO AND TELEVISION BROADCASTING AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING3342201,581$3,190,206,9339.1% of total
3AMMUNITION (EXCEPT SMALL ARMS) MANUFACTURING33299378$3,065,254,8738.7% of total
4SEARCH, DETECTION, NAVIGATION, GUIDANCE, AERONAUTICAL, AND NAUTICAL SYSTEM AND INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURING334511671$3,064,965,4318.7% of total
5OTHER AIRCRAFT PARTS AND AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING3364132,988$2,264,497,4616.4% of total
6AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING336411244$2,009,967,6475.7% of total
7ENGINEERING SERVICES541330660$1,381,588,5203.9% of total
8RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE PHYSICAL, ENGINEERING, AND LIFE SCIENCES54171017$1,303,191,6793.7% of total
9COMMERCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION236220624$1,272,240,1893.6% of total
10COPPER ROLLING, DRAWING, EXTRUDING, AND ALLOYING331420131$1,195,029,3523.4% of total
11OTHER COMMERCIAL AND SERVICE INDUSTRY MACHINERY MANUFACTURING33331846$1,132,870,2933.2% of total
12FACILITIES SUPPORT SERVICES561210780$734,927,4602.1% of total
Find your own NAICS code with the free finder →

Recently started contract work in Iowa

The most recent awards on file by period-of-performance start date, the latest beginning July 1, 2028. Every card links to the same award on USAspending.gov so you can check the figures against the government's own record.

  • ROCKWELL COLLINS, INC.

    $4,471,497

    Department of Defense · Department of the Navy

    325920 · EXPLOSIVES MANUFACTURING

    Place of performance
    CEDAR RAPIDS, IA
    Work started
    Jul 1, 2028
    Through
    Jul 11, 2029
    Contract
    N0010425FYB04
    Check this award on USAspending.gov

  • DATA LINK SOLUTIONS LLC

    $1,233,172

    Department of Defense · Department of the Air Force

    811210 · ELECTRONIC AND PRECISION EQUIPMENT REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE

    Place of performance
    CEDAR RAPIDS, IA
    Work started
    Apr 9, 2027
    Through
    May 22, 2027
    Contract
    FA830726FB059
    Check this award on USAspending.gov

  • MISSION SYSTEMS DAVENPORT INC.

    $216,927

    Department of Defense · Department of the Navy

    336413 · OTHER AIRCRAFT PARTS AND AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING

    Place of performance
    DAVENPORT, IA
    Work started
    Jan 15, 2027
    Through
    Jan 15, 2028
    Contract
    N0042126F0388
    Check this award on USAspending.gov

  • PRELUDE BEHAVIORAL SERVICES

    $0

    Department of Justice · Federal Prison System / Bureau of Prisons

    621420 · OUTPATIENT MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE CENTERS

    Place of performance
    DES MOINES, IA
    Work started
    Oct 1, 2026
    Through
    Nov 30, 2026
    Contract
    15BCTS26F00000411
    Check this award on USAspending.gov

  • HAUSERS WATER SYSTEMS, INC.

    $36,175

    Department of Justice · Federal Prison System / Bureau of Prisons

    423720 · PLUMBING AND HEATING EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES (HYDRONICS) MERCHANT WHOLESALERS

    Place of performance
    MANCHESTER, IA
    Work started
    Sep 30, 2026
    Through
    Sep 30, 2026
    Contract
    15B41126P00000123
    Check this award on USAspending.gov

  • ACCURATE REPORTING, INC.

    $25,950

    Department of Justice · Offices, Boards and Divisions

    561492 · COURT REPORTING AND STENOTYPE SERVICES

    Place of performance
    CEDAR RAPIDS, IA
    Work started
    Sep 30, 2026
    Through
    Sep 29, 2027
    Contract
    15JA0526F00000300
    Check this award on USAspending.gov

  • SCHWARZ FORENSIC ENTERPRISES, INC

    $200,000

    Department of Commerce · National Institute of Standards and Technology

    541990 · ALL OTHER PROFESSIONAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND TECHNICAL SERVICES

    Place of performance
    WINTERSET, IA
    Work started
    Sep 30, 2026
    Through
    Sep 29, 2027
    Contract
    1333ND26PNB770196
    Check this award on USAspending.gov

  • REGENCY CONSULTING INC

    $51,800

    Department of Health and Human Services · Office of the Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources

    541519 · OTHER COMPUTER RELATED SERVICES

    Place of performance
    SIOUX CITY, IA
    Work started
    Sep 30, 2026
    Through
    Sep 29, 2027
    Contract
    7571TE26F80149
    Check this award on USAspending.gov

Government bids open in Iowa right now

See more Iowabids →

Awards are history. These are live: solicitations with a deadline still ahead of them, soonest first, each carrying the agency's own published record — the buyer, the deadline and the documents. Sam's deep workup, the part that names what disqualifies bidders, is published for specialty-trade construction and janitorial and facilities services.

No open bids are posted for Iowa this minute — they come and go daily. Get free alerts below and Sam will email you when a new one lands.

Open federal construction government bids→Open federal janitorial government bids→

How to use Iowa award history to win work

Most contractors start at the wrong end. They find an open solicitation, spend two weeks on a proposal, and lose to an incumbent who has held the work for nine years. Award history runs the other way round: you find the buyer first, learn what they purchase and what they pay, and show up already knowing the job.

Three things on this page do real work for you. The agency list tells you who has the budget in Iowa; those offices post again, and their recompetes are the most winnable contracts in government because the requirement is already written. The contractor list tells you who currently holds it — which is your competition if you bid prime, and your customer if you subcontract. The median award tells you whether this market is your size at all, before you spend a day on a bid you cannot bond or staff.

A contract's period of performance is your calendar. Work with an end date twelve to eighteen months out is work that will be recompeted, and the agency starts market research long before the solicitation appears. That window — after the incumbent's option years are visibly running out, before anything is posted — is when a capability statement and a phone call to the contracting office are worth more than any proposal you could write later.

None of it matters if you are not registered and eligible. A federal award requires an active SAM.gov registration with a UEI, and the set-aside on a solicitation decides whether your bid is even read. Both are free to sort out, and both are the most common reason a ready contractor is disqualified on a technicality.

Where these numbers come from

  • Source. Federal prime contract awards published by USAspending.gov, the government's official spending record. Public record, free, no data vendor in between. Each award links back to its page there so you can verify any figure yourself.
  • Scope. Contract awards whose place of performance is Iowa — where the work happens, not where the winner is headquartered. Grants, loans, and direct payments are excluded; they are not work a contractor competes for.
  • What is not here. This is a portion of federal contracting in Iowa, not all of it, and it does not include Iowa state or municipal purchasing. Treat these figures as a floor: the real market is larger than what is on this page.
  • Missing values. Where USAspending records no amount, agency, or recipient, we leave it out instead of filling it in. An award with no reported amount is still counted as an award but does not enter any total or average, which is why a row's award count can outrun its dollars.

Iowa government contracts — common questions

Who wins the most government contracts in Iowa?
Of the federal contract awards on file for Iowa, ROCKWELL COLLINS, INC. holds the largest total: 5,363 awards worth $10,668,760,487. That is a ranking of this dataset, not of every contractor in the state: the table above is capped at the 20 largest by award dollars.
Which federal agency buys the most in Iowa?
Department of Defense accounts for the largest total in this dataset: 133,946 awards worth $27,028,069,320. Knowing your buyer matters — agencies reuse the same contracting offices, the same clause sets, and often the same incumbents.
How big is a typical government contract in Iowa?
The median award on file is $536, while the average is $231,482. The gap between the two is the point: a small number of very large contracts pull the average up, so the median is the better guide to the work a small business actually competes for.
What kind of work does the government buy in Iowa?
In this dataset the largest industry by dollars is OTHER COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING (NAICS 334290). Your NAICS code is how buyers classify the work and how set-aside size standards are applied, so it decides which of these contracts you are even eligible to bid.
Do I have to be based in Iowa to bid on these contracts?
No. Federal contracts are open to any registered business in the United States, and the state shown here is the place of performance — where the work happens, not where the winner is headquartered. Being local helps on price and on site-visit logistics, and some state and local solicitations do apply residency or local preferences, but the federal ones on this page do not.
How do I find open government bids in Iowa?
Awards tell you who has been buying; open solicitations are what you can still bid. BidGovContracts pulls federal SAM.gov postings and state portals into one feed, filters them to your trade and state, and summarizes each one in plain English — what the job is, when it is due, and what disqualifies bidders. Start with the open bids listed on this page.

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