What a recompete is and why it matters

Every award has a clock

A federal contract is not open ended. Each one has a period of performance: a start date and an end date. Supply contracts for parts often run a base period, usually a year, followed by option periods the government can exercise one at a time. An IDIQ has an ordering period, after which no new orders can be placed even if money remains on the ceiling.

These dates are public. FPDS records the current completion date and the estimated ultimate completion date if every option is used. USASpending shows the same pair as a current end date and a potential end date. When you look at an award record, you are looking at a clock.

What happens when the clock runs out

When a contract ends and the need continues, the agency has to buy again. That follow-on buy is the recompete. Sometimes it is a new full competition. Sometimes it is a set-aside. Sometimes the agency justifies a sole source to the current vendor, which is common for parts with restricted sources. Either way, a contracting officer has to act, and that action leaves a trail of notices.

The trail usually starts well before the end date, because a gap in supply is a problem for the agency. A sources sought notice or a request for information often appears in the last year of the contract. That is the point where a new vendor can still change the outcome, for example by responding and showing that enough small businesses exist to justify a set-aside.

The twelve-month window

LastAwarded treats the last twelve months of a contract as its recompete window. The choice is practical. Earlier than that, the agency often has not decided how it will buy. Later than that, the solicitation may already be out with a short deadline, and you are quoting cold.

Inside the window, the useful work is unglamorous: get the drawings if you can, confirm you can meet the quality clauses, check that the quantity fits your capacity, and respond to any market research the buyer posts. If the part needs source approval, start that package now, not when the solicitation drops.

The end dates in the public record are estimates. Options get exercised late, contracts get extended, and some end early. Treat the window as a season, not a day. The recompete methodology page explains how the app estimates a date when the record is incomplete.

What the incumbent knows that you do not

The current vendor has real advantages, and it helps to name them. They have the drawings and the revision history. They know the actual quantities ordered against the ceiling, which are often less than the ceiling suggests. They know which quality clause caused trouble last time and what the inspector looks for. They know the buyer by name. And nobody has to tell them when the contract ends.

The public record narrows that gap more than most shops expect. Obligations show how much of the ceiling was actually used. Modification history shows whether options were exercised on time. The number of offers received on the original award shows whether anyone else quoted. If that number was one, the buyer may welcome a second source. If the award was a small business set-aside and the incumbent has since outgrown the size standard, the next buy may go elsewhere.

Why it matters for a small shop

New requirements are hard to see coming. Recompetes are not. The contract, the buyer, and the part already exist, and you can study all of them for months before anyone posts a solicitation. For a shop with a small quoting budget, that is where the effort pays best.

Start with the parts you already make. Find the awards for them. Sort by end date. That list is your pipeline.