Department of Homeland Security (DHS) contracts

About contracting with the DHS

The Department of Homeland Security is the third-largest federal buyer after DoD and VA among operating departments, and its contracting profile is unusually diverse because of how broad its operational mission is. Customs and Border Protection runs major procurements for border-surveillance technology (towers, sensors, cameras), aviation assets, and detection equipment at ports of entry — its Office of Acquisition is one of the larger federal acquisition shops outside DoD. The Transportation Security Administration buys heavily for airport screening equipment (X-ray, explosive trace detection, body scanners), passenger-screening services in some configurations, and aviation security technology. The US Coast Guard is a major buyer of cutters, boats, aircraft, and shore-side infrastructure — Coast Guard major-systems acquisitions run on long timelines comparable to Navy programmes. FEMA runs both pre-positioned IDIQs for disaster-response services (debris removal, emergency housing, temporary facilities) and rapid-response buys during declared disasters. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has become an important buyer for cybersecurity services, threat-hunting capability, and protective-DNS services as the federal government has centralised more cyber capability. The Federal Protective Service contracts for armed and unarmed guard services at GSA-controlled federal facilities — these contracts are some of the largest single labour-services awards in the federal government. DHS runs an active small-business programme with strong HUBZone and SDVOSB utilisation. Vendors targeting DHS should align with 541512 (IT services), 561612 (security guards), 541330 (engineering), and 236220 (construction). Subcontracting under prime contractors on large DHS IDIQs — particularly EAGLE NEXT Gen for IT services — is a common entry point. See our federal contract search and SAM.gov alternative pages for tools to monitor DHS opportunities.

Read the full DHS contracting guide →