Small-Business Set-Aside Contracts Up 77% Quarter-Over-Quarter
Summary
Federal obligations on Total Small Business Set-Aside contracts (FPDS code SBA) reached $7.27 billion across 34,517 award actions in FY2026 Q2 (Jan-Mar 2026), USAspending.gov data show -- up 77% from $4.11 billion in FY2026 Q1 and up 18% from $6.14 billion in FY2025 Q2 a year earlier. The Department of Defense drove $4.80 billion, 66% of the total, followed distantly by Homeland Security ($394 million) and Agriculture ($337 million). The jump is a rebound off an unusually low Q1: the next quarter, FY2026 Q3, eased back 10% to $6.53 billion.
View data as table
| FY25 Q1 | 5.2 | Oct-Dec 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| FY25 Q2 | 6.1 | Jan-Mar 2025 — the year-ago comparison |
| FY25 Q3 | 7.3 | Apr-Jun 2025 |
| FY25 Q4 | 14.2 | Jul-Sep 2025 — the fiscal-year-end surge quarter |
| FY26 Q1 | 4.1 | Oct-Dec 2025 — the low point |
| FY26 Q2 | 7.3 | Jan-Mar 2026 — up 77% from Q1 |
| FY26 Q3 | 6.5 | Apr-Jun 2026 — a pullback from the Q2 peak |
One buyer drove the quarter. The Department of Defense alone obligated $4.80 billion -- 66% of the total, and about twelve times the next agency, Homeland Security ($394 million). Agriculture ($337 million), Transportation ($263 million) and Interior ($247 million) followed; no civilian department cracked $400 million. In dollar terms, the small-business set-aside is a Pentagon program.
View data as table
| Defense | 4.8 | 66% of the $7.27B quarter total |
|---|---|---|
| Homeland Security | 0.4 | Second — one-twelfth of DoD's total |
| Agriculture | 0.3 | Third |
| Transportation | 0.3 | Fourth |
| Interior | 0.3 | Fifth |
| Health & Human Svcs | 0.2 | Sixth |
The jump is a spike, not a new plateau. FY2026 Q1 was an unusually low $4.11 billion -- the softest quarter in the two-year series -- so Q2's rebound is measured off a trough. The very next quarter slid back 10% to $6.53 billion. The year-over-year read, +18%, is the steadier signal that set-aside spending is genuinely running ahead of last year.
- A rebound off a trough, not runaway growth. Q2's $7.27B follows an unusually weak $4.11B Q1, so the 77% jump is arithmetic off a low base. Year over year -- the cleaner comparison -- set-aside obligations are up 18%.
- Defense is the program. Two-thirds of every set-aside dollar this quarter came from DoD. The largest civilian buyer, Homeland Security, obligated one-twelfth as much, and no other department reached $400 million.
- The spike did not hold. FY2026 Q3 already eased to $6.53 billion, 10% below the Q2 peak (moderate confidence: late-posting awards can still nudge recent quarters up as the data matures).
Scope and method. Figures are contract obligations (money legally committed, not necessarily paid out) on award types A-D -- definitive procurement contracts, purchase orders, delivery orders, and calls -- carrying FPDS set-aside code , the 'Total Small Business Set-Aside' designation under FAR 19.502-2(a). This is a specific designation, not every small-business set-aside: partial set-asides, 8(a), HUBZone, service-disabled-veteran, and women-owned set-asides use separate codes and are excluded. Quarters are grouped by action date. All three pulls were run against the USAspending.gov Advanced Search API on 2026-08-14 and are exactly reproducible from the request bodies in the source pool. FY2025 Q4's $14.16 billion reflects the routine September fiscal-year-end obligation surge and is shown for context only, not as a comparator.
Sources(3) ▾
- U.S. Department of the Treasury / USAspending.gov, USAspending.gov Spending Over Time — Total Small Business Set-Aside (set_aside_type_codes=SBA) contract obligations by fiscal quarter, FY2025 Q1 through FY2026 (2026-08-14) — USAspending.gov Advanced Search API, spending_over_time endpoint. Reproduce with: POST https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_over_time/ with body {"group":"quarter","filters":{"award_type_codes":["A","B","C","D"],"set_aside_type_codes":[""],"time_period":[{"start_date":"2024-10-01","end_date":"2026-08-14"}]}}. Returns Contract_Obligations aggregated by fiscal quarter. set_aside_type_codes=[""] selects the FPDS 'Total Small Business Set-Aside' designation (FAR 19.502-2(a)); award_type_codes A-D selects definitive procurement contracts ( calls, purchase orders, delivery orders, definitive contracts), excluding IDVs. Source for all quarterly obligation totals used in the trend chart. Pulled 2026-08-14. api.usaspending.gov
- U.S. Department of the Treasury / USAspending.gov, USAspending.gov Spending by Award Count — Total Small Business Set-Aside contract actions, FY2026 Q2 (action_date 2026-01-01 to 2026-03-31) (2026-08-14) — USAspending.gov Advanced Search API, spending_by_award_count endpoint. Reproduce with: POST https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_by_award_count/ with body {"filters":{"award_type_codes":["A","B","C","D"],"set_aside_type_codes":[""],"time_period":[{"start_date":"2026-01-01","end_date":"2026-03-31","date_type":"action_date"}]}}. Returns results.contracts = the count of contract award records with a Total Small Business Set-Aside designation and an action date in the FY2026 Q2 window. Pulled 2026-08-14. api.usaspending.gov
- U.S. Department of the Treasury / USAspending.gov, USAspending.gov Spending by Awarding Agency — Total Small Business Set-Aside contract obligations by agency, FY2026 Q2 (action_date 2026-01-01 to 2026-03-31) (2026-08-14) — USAspending.gov Advanced Search API, spending_by_category/awarding_agency endpoint. Reproduce with: POST https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_by_category/awarding_agency/ with body {"category":"awarding_agency","filters":{"award_type_codes":["A","B","C","D"],"set_aside_type_codes":[""],"time_period":[{"start_date":"2026-01-01","end_date":"2026-03-31","date_type":"action_date"}]},"limit":10}. Returns obligations aggregated by awarding agency for the FY2026 Q2 window. Source for the agency concentration chart (DoD, , , DoT, Interior, ). Pulled 2026-08-14. api.usaspending.gov
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Federal agencies obligated $7.27 billion on small-business set-aside contracts in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 (January-March 2026), across 34,517 award actions -- up 77% from $4.11 billion the quarter before and 18% above the $6.14 billion booked a year earlier, USAspending.gov data show. These are definitive contracts flagged with the Total Small Business Set-Aside designation (FPDS set-aside code ).