Contracting Guide

Contracting: Guide to doing business with USACE

US Army Corps of Engineers, Northwestern Division
Published Feb. 1, 2024

Learn more by visitng the USACE, Doing Business with us website.

How to Register:

You must register your business in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov/SAM/ before submitting an offer or quote. Registration is free. 

  1. If you need help during SAM registration fisit the, Federal Service Desk at https://fsd.gov/fsd-gov/home.do for contact information via live chat, web form, or phone. 
  2. If you would like to be included in the Disaster Recovery Registry, you must indicate this during the SAM registration process; see information at https://www.acquisition.gov/disaster-response-registry.
  3. A current Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code is required to do business with the Federal Government. During the Same registration proces, a cage code will be assigned to your business. 

Locations

To find U.S. Army Corps of Engineers locations, visit http://www.usace.army.mil/Locations.aspx and review the mission of each District/Center Contracting Office to determin your interest. If you are a Small Business , contact the District/Center's Small Business Office to discuss your firm's capability. 

Acquisition Regulations, Instruction, and Desk Guide

USACE contract awards and administration are goverened by three regulations and an acquisition and instruction with companion guide. You will need to become familiar with each:

  1. Regulations: Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) https://www.acquisition.gov/; FAR procedures and deviations https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/dars/far.html;  and Army FAR Supplement http://www.acquisition.gov/afars.
  2. USACE Acquisition Instruction an USACE Desk Guide: The latest version dated June 3, 2019 may be obtained from the Contracting Officer and updates can be found at https://www.usace.army.mil/Business-With-Us/Contracting/Resources/.

Contract Opportunities

  1. Search for USACE contract opportunities at https://sam.gov/. Contract opportunites may be searched by keyword, solicitation number, or District/Center name. Each contract opportunity is classified by a Product Service Code (PSC) or Federal Supply Code (FSC), and a North American Industry Classifcation System (NAICS) code. Thus, it is important to know which PSC, FSC, or NAICS applised to your industry. To learn about a PSC or FSC, view the Product and Service Code Manual at https://www.acquisition.gov/psc_manual. To learn about NAICS codes, visit https://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/
  2. If you are a Small Business, to find subcontracting opportunities on USACE contracts, search the Small Business Administration (SBA) Subcontracting Network at https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/subcontracting-network-subnet-system.
  3. For all USACE contract awards, conduct a Contract Data search at https://sam.gov/. A search of the data is a great way to seek subcontract opportunities, as well as monitor expiring contracts for future contract opportunities.  

Remember, in addition to your district/center Small Business Professional, your state's Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) is a GREAT resource and partner to help you organize your USACE business development planning and any of the above stops on the road trip to USACE contracts- find your state's PTAC at Help for Government Contracting - APTAC - Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (aptac-us.org)

If you have additional questions, please contact the appropriate district/center or USACE HQ Office of Small Business Programs small-business-hq@usace.army.mil