Federal Maritime Commission

The Federal Maritime Commission is an independent civilian agency that regulates international ocean shipping, port operations, and maritime commerce, procuring contracts to support regulatory oversight, investigations, and compliance monitoring of the U.S. shipping industry. The Commission awards contracts for information systems, data subscriptions, IT services, and operational support to its enforcement and intelligence programs.

The FMC has issued 669 federal contract awards since 1986 with a combined potential value of $67.1 million, of which $63.6 million is obligated. Recent award volume has averaged 22 contracts per year over the last five years: 14 awards in 2022, 29 in 2023, 30 in 2024, 20 in 2025, and 16 year-to-date in 2026. The most recent recorded award date is September 30, 2026. Among 259 distinct prime contractors in the portfolio, competitive concentration is highly fragmented by both count and value. Over the last five years, Tyson Project Management Group LLC holds the lead by award count with 19 awards worth $255 thousand combined potential value, followed by Axsmarine with 5 awards. By potential value, Microsoft Corporation dominates recent activity with 2 awards worth $2.4 million, though no single prime contractor captures material share—the top five by value cover only 9 percent of recent combined potential value. The majority of the FMC's contract awards carry no set-aside designation (88 percent); small-business and underutilized-business set-asides account for about 11 percent of awards combined, with 6 percent total small business, 3 percent 8(a) sole source, 1 percent service-disabled veteran-owned small business, 1 percent HUBZone, and less than 1 percent woman-owned small business sole source.

Recent contract opportunities center on data subscriptions and IT infrastructure. The FMC posted a Special Notice on September 30, 2026 for a logical follow-on contract with Lumen Technologies Government for voice and data services (FMC-OIT-26-0031). A September 10, 2026 Special Notice indicates the agency's intent to sole-source a web-based import and export trade data search subscription to Descartes Systems (USA) to support the Bureau of Enforcement, Investigations, and Compliance—the FMC lacks direct access to U.S. Customs and Border Protection's unfiltered data and requires a subscription vendor with that access (FMC-26-BEIC-0004). A September 2, 2026 Special Notice announced sole-source award intent to IHS Global Inc. for a Maritime Intelligence Risk Suite subscription providing ship characteristics, vessel movements, company ownership data, sanctions screening, and port security updates to the Commission's secondary users (65310226R00001).

The Federal Maritime Commission is responsible for regulating the U.S. international ocean transportation system for the benefit of U.S. exporters, importers, and the U.S. consumer.