Written from the government side of the table
The Base Bid is an independent publication about how the federal government buys construction — and how contractors can get in front of that work before the team is already picked.
Who builds it
The Base Bid is built by a former federal construction contracting officer and competition advocate. That background shapes everything here: which notices matter, what a sources sought notice is really asking, why a recompete date is worth more than most solicitations, and where small firms lose work they could have won.
What we cover
Department of War military construction and facility repair (USACE, NAVFAC, AFCEC and installation contracting), Department of Veterans Affairs construction, and GSA Public Buildings Service construction and leasing. Construction and architect-engineer work only. Civil works is not covered.
What we publish
- The weekly newsletter, free every Monday — every construction solicitation, RFI and sources sought notice that posted, the deadlines coming up, the week's awards, and one piece of analysis. Read the issues →
- Base Bid Pro — new notices and upcoming response dates every weekday morning, filtered to your agencies and regions. About Base Bid Pro →
- Free data pages — the recompete calendar, contract vehicles by office, federal construction by state, by trade and expiring GSA leases.
- The Base Bid Academy — Federal Construction Contracting: GSA, VA and DoW Work, a six-and-a-half-hour video course on Udemy that walks through a federal construction project from registration to closeout.
- Guides and reference — set-aside guides, the glossary and the reference library.
- Working spreadsheets in the data store for capture and business development teams.
Independence
No advertising. No sponsored items. No money from any firm we cover. The Base Bid is not affiliated with any federal agency or contractor, and nothing here is paid placement. Subscribers and data customers pay for it — nobody else.
Standards and corrections
How we select notices, what we verify and what we will not publish are set out in our editorial standards. When we get something wrong, the correction runs at the top of the next issue and is logged on the corrections page.
Contact
Questions, corrections and data requests: [email protected], or use the contact page. Every message is read and answered by a person.
No advertising. No sponsored items. No money from any firm we cover.