In commercial business, overhead is a private number folded into your price, and customers judge only the price. In government contracting, overhead becomes a structured, visible rate: indirect costs are grouped into defined pools, applied through calculated rates, and, on cost-type work, billed provisionally and settled against actuals. The difference shapes how you price, what your accounting system must do, and how buyers judge whether your numbers are realistic.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) coordinates the federal government's role in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. President Jimmy Carter created it in 1979 by combining scattered federal disaster and civil defense programs into one agency, and it has been part of the Department of Homeland Security since 2003. In most disasters, federal aid follows a state or tribal request and a presidential declaration, and it supplements state and local efforts.
Government buyers care about incurred cost submissions because on cost-reimbursement and time-and-materials contracts, the government pays a contractor's actual allowable costs, and the annual submission is how those costs get verified and settled. Commercial buyers rarely look inside a supplier's books, while a federal buyer paying actual costs must. The submission is due within six months of the contractor's fiscal year end, and being ready for it signals readiness for cost-type work.
Updated October 9, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. EDT (2:00 p.m. CDT) with the latest National Hurricane Center forecast and emergency declaration status.
If you want to help with recovery work after Hurricane Isaias, confirm your SAM registration is active and join the Disaster Response Registry now. Florida has asked for a federal emergency declaration, but none had been approved as of Friday afternoon, and the federal preference for local businesses only applies once one covers your county. The earliest work moves quickly, so getting ready now makes sure buyers can find you.
The biggest change to procurement forecasting heading into FY2027 is standardization, not full consolidation. In November 2024, OMB directed agencies to standardize forecast data and centralize it on GSA's Forecast of Contracting Opportunities (FCO) tool, with alignment due by the end of Q3 FY2026. That deadline has passed, but adoption remains uneven. Treat the FCO tool as a starting point for FY2027 research, not the only stop.
If you're reading this, you've probably got a SAM screen open in another tab with an error on it. You've already cleared your cache, tried a different browser, and maybe opened a ticket that hasn't gone anywhere. You're not doing anything wrong. Most SAM errors are matching problems or data problems, and the message on the screen almost never tells you which.
An active SAM registration does a lot more than check a compliance box. With your UEI and CAGE code, it lets you bid on federal contracts and apply for grants, get paid electronically, compete for small business set-asides, team with prime contractors, and show up when contracting officers search for vendors. To get the most from it, renew it every year, keep your NAICS codes and business size accurate, complete your SBA Small Business Search profile, and opt into the registries that fit your business.
May's Small Business Month, anchored by National Small Business Week on May 3 through 9, spotlighted free resources that remain available all year, from SBA training to no-cost counseling networks. The months that follow are when event connections either become pipeline or fade, which makes now the time to revisit those resources, follow up with the people you met, and plan your fall networking calendar.
Relationships can help you get noticed before a contract is competed, but they won't decide who wins it. Once a solicitation is out, federal agencies have to score every proposal against the exact criteria they published in that document. So the strongest proposal usually beats the strongest relationship, not the other way around. The practical move is to build visibility and connections before a solicitation drops, then win the actual competition with a proposal built around exactly what the agency said it would judge.
Building an FY2027 pursuit team means assigning, before the year's opportunities arrive, who covers each part of winning federal work, from finding and qualifying opportunities to writing proposals, keeping compliance current, and delivering after award. For most small contractors, that team blends internal roles, teaming partners, and outside support, and naming who owns each job is what keeps pursuits from stalling against a deadline.
