Do Business with Us

Welcome to FHFA Contracting Operations. We are pleased you are interested in doing business with us. It is especially important to understand how FHFA contracting works because FHFA is structured differently than many other federal agencies. FHFA's contracting program deals daily with the diverse needs and specialized requirements of both our mission divisions and partnering offices. We are responsible for procuring all goods and services, including information technology, required by FHFA, so we need a lot of good businesses to help us meet all those needs.

FY2025 Projected New Competitive Procurement Opportunities [PDF]

How is FHFA Acquisition Different?

FHFA's funding is non-appropriated, which means our budget resources are not provided by Congress. Instead, our funding comes from the entities we regulate. Consequently, FHFA is not subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (known as FAR).

While subject to many of the same procurement laws as other government agencies, FHFA also works under separate and unique laws and has established its own contracting policies and procedures for procuring its goods and services. FHFA's contracting policies and procedures are a unique blend of the best of FAR and best practices from the private sector, which allows us to be more flexible in meeting the agency 's mission.

What to Do if You Want to Do Business with FHFA

Registering your business is the first and most critical step.

To be included for consideration on solicitation distribution mailing lists for contracts in your business area, you should register in the following places:

1. System for Award Management (SAM)
   • This is the primary registrant database for the federal government. Generally, FHFA only awards contracts to businesses registered in SAM. The SAM website gives detailed instructions and helps answer your questions.
   • www.sam.gov/content/home
2. Contract Opportunities on SAM.gov
   • Almost all federal government solicitations that must be publicly advertised are advertised on this site.
   • https://sam.gov/content/opportunities
3. FHFA Doing Business With Us Form
   • Complete and submit FHFA’s Doing Business With Us Form (New form coming soon!), including all the required fields. FHFA Contracting Officers consult these entries when developing source list.

​​FHFA's Acquisition Process and Methods

FHFA uses a "soup-to-nuts" approach to acquisition.

A contracting officer maintains control and responsibility from identification of the need through contract administration and closeout.

The basic phases of the contracting process include:

• Presolicitation—Identifying the requirement, performing market research, preparing the statement of work and solicitation.
• Solicitation—Identifying prospective offerors, issuing the solicitation, and receiving proposals or quotes.
• Evaluation—Evaluating the responsive technical and price proposals or quotes submitted by offerors or vendors.
• Award—Making the best value decision for the award, obtaining approvals, and executing the contract with the successful offeror. This stage also includes notifying the unsuccessful offerors and conducting debriefings, as appropriate.

Contract Administration

FHFA's administration of the contract follows for the life of the contract and includes:

• performance monitoring
• executing modifications
• handling claims
• inspection and acceptance of the goods or services
• invoice processing and payment
• closeout

Contractors and Subcontractors

Eligible firms interested in providing goods or services to FHFA may respond to our solicitations. Your goal should be to offer the best possible technical and price solution for our requirement.

This includes forming the most attractive team to perform under the contract. In cases where a firm may need to supplement its technical expertise, subcontracting or teaming arrangements may be the solution.

Acquisition Thresholds

Contracts and purchase orders are definitive contracting mechanisms that define specific performance periods, prices, and terms. Contracts typically are for larger acquisitions greater than $250,000, and purchase orders are usually for smaller amounts.

• Acquisitions $10,000 and Less

  • When a requirement is $10,000 or less, competitive pricing is not required. Awards may be made directly using the FHFA purchase card.
  • FHFA prefers this method for acquiring low-cost goods and administrative services because it is efficient, cost effective, and saves money.

• Acquisitions $250,000 and Less

  • FHFA uses simplified acquisition procedures for contracting requirements that are not complex in nature and are $250,000 or less.
  • We may make telephone calls or issue written requests for quotes from generally a minimum of three firms. Award documents are typically commercial (short form) contracts.

• Contracts Greater than $250,000

  • FHFA uses more formal contracting procedures for requirements that are complex and greater than $250,000. We issue formal solicitations and award contracts for these requirements.
  • We generally solicit a minimum of three firms. Award decisions are generally based on a best-value basis to responsible firms.

• Noncompetitive Acquisition

  • If FHFA determines only one firm can provide the goods or services required, we use noncompetitive contracting procedures following the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984.
  • Unique situations may and do arise in which competitive acquisition is not possible. These generally involve urgent or specialized requirements.

Contracting on a Best-Value Basis

A strict lowest price decision, which is often the sole deciding factor in much of private sector contracting, does not always meet FHFA's needs. Overall, the procurement process takes advantage of a competitive and commercial marketplace that offers the best value to FHFA. Best-value decisions are based on business judgments, considering factors such as capability, past performance, and price.

Contract Types

FHFA primarily uses firm-fixed-price contracts and time-and-materials contracts (T&M), or labor hours contracts (level of effort).

• Fixed-Price Contracts
  • In a firm-fixed-price contract, the price is established in the contract. The contractor is either paid for successfully performing the work or paid a fixed-unit price for the quantity ordered to determine the final price for successful performance.
• Level-of-Effort Contracts
  • T&M and labor-hour contracts compensate the contractor based on hours worked and accepted by FHFA. T&M contracts also reimburse the contractor for material costs.

Other Acquisition Methods

In addition to individual contract awards, FHFA primarily uses the following methods to procure goods and services:

Blanket Purchase Agreements

FHFA establishes blanket purchase agreements as a simplified method of filling anticipated repetitive needs for goods and services at a later date or on an ongoing basis.

Other Types of Contracts and Purchase Orders:

We often use the General Services Administration 's (GSA) Federal Supply Schedules and Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), including NASA's Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement to place orders for goods and services directly with contractors.

The majority of our requirements are competed using GSA schedules and competitive GWACs because these are streamlined instruments including price lists and pre-negotiated terms.

These instruments help meet our contracting needs because they are more efficient and include a diverse mix of firms including small businesses and other special category firms.

Firms that are interested in doing significant business with FHFA should learn more about GSA schedules and GWACs.​

For More Information

• FHFA's Acquisition Policy - June 27, 2011 [PDF]
• SAM.gov Web Page​​​​​

Last updated:  January 24, 2025