J Foster & Associates LLC

J Foster & Associates LLC, a woman-owned small disadvantaged business and SBA 8(a) certified firm based in Idaho Falls, Idaho, operates as a prime contractor (97% of recent awards) delivering wildland fire management instructor services, geographic information systems support, environmental cost estimating, and technical consulting to federal natural-resource agencies. The company holds a Subchapter S corporate structure and is self-certified as both economically disadvantaged and woman-owned, positioning it to compete under set-aside vehicles that dominate its prime footprint.

Customer concentration sits heavily with fire and land-management agencies. The Department of Agriculture Forest Service Washington Office Acquisitions leads by award count (55 awards, $7.7 million combined potential value), followed by the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center (49 awards, $4.2 million), and the Department of the Interior National Park Service National Office (13 awards, $11.3 million). However, the top-customer-by-dollars ranking is anchored by GSA Federal Acquisition Service (2 awards carrying $106 million combined potential value), reflecting J Foster & Associates' position on two GSA Multiple Award Schedule contracts worth $53 million each. The disparity signals that GSA's MAS vehicles carry substantial ceilings but low task-order volume to date, whereas Forest Service and NIFC work is high-touch and distributed across numerous small delivery orders. Across the top five customers by potential value, J Foster & Associates accounts for 98% of combined potential value, with the balance scattered across 8 additional agencies.

The vendor places task orders under five parent vehicles: a Blanket Purchase Agreement with the Forest Service (100 task orders, $2.7 million combined potential value), Indefinite Delivery Contracts with the National Interagency Fire Center ($1 million ceiling for aviation management technician services, contract administration, and GIS support), and the National Park Service ($4.5 million ceiling for GIS services). The GSA MAS contracts (March 2022 through March 2027, both $53 million ceilings, Total Small Business and unrestricted variants) authorize delivery across 28 Special Item Numbers encompassing engineering, environmental consulting, technical consulting, and educational support, with pricing established at fully burdened hourly rates across over 100 labor categories.

Activity has contracted sharply. The vendor secured 24 awards in 2022, 18 in 2023, 8 in 2024, and only 3 in 2025, with 1 award recorded in 2026 through late May. Six awards carrying combined potential value of $3.6 million face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete exposure in that window. Recent representative work includes a $3.65 million 8(a) Sole Source definitive contract with the Forest Service (September 2024) for temporary professional course instructors supporting interagency wildland fire training; a $1.66 million time-and-materials delivery order with the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (May 2026) for contract administration and general support to the Office of Cost Estimating at Environmental Management Los Alamos; an $802 thousand full-and-open definitive contract with the Department of Agriculture Wildland Operations (October 2025) for instructor services at the National Interagency Fire and Resource Management Center; and a $698 thousand delivery order with the National Park Service (September 2025) under its FY25-4 GIS Staffing Contract.

Across SCI-reportable federal service contracts above the $150 thousand threshold, J Foster & Associates invoiced $3.4 million across FY2022–FY2024, with FY2022 reaching $1.6 million across 7.2 FTEs, FY2023 declining to $490 thousand across 2.4 FTEs, and FY2024 recovering to $1.4 million across 9.1 FTEs. Government-paid hourly rates on prime SCI contracts ran a median of $72.80/hour, with the 10th percentile at $52.13/hour and the 90th percentile (senior labor) at $241.58/hour. The vendor performed 99% of SCI-reportable prime contract hours in-house, with subcontractors accounting for 1% of total hours across contracts, indicating J Foster & Associates builds its own delivery teams and does not operate as a feeder to larger primes. Two named subcontractors appear in the SCI dataset, both assigned to staff augmentation roles on the Idaho Cleanup Project End State Contract (Process Engineer and Environmental Engineer positions).

The vendor holds two federal grant awards from the Department of Energy Office of Science (CFDA 81.049, Office of Science Financial Assistance Program). In July 2023, J Foster & Associates received a $192 thousand Project Grant for powder injection overmolding of high-burnup light water reactor fuels (period through July 2024) and a $194 thousand Project Grant for powder injection molding processes for fast-reactor nuclear-fuel manufacture (same period), both addressing advanced manufacturing techniques for nuclear fuel research. These grants represent the only non-contract federal work in the source.

Set-aside posture is mixed. Forest Service BPA calls and training-support work frequently use Women-Owned Small Business, Total Small Business, and Competitive 8(a) designations; Department of Energy and National Park Service delivery orders are typically full-and-open or unrestricted, though several sole-source awards to J Foster & Associates carry 8(a) Sole Source framing. The vendor's GSA MAS contracts include one Total Small Business variant and one unrestricted version, both with identical $53 million ceilings, enabling the company to compete on both set-aside and full-and-open task orders through the same vehicles.

JFoster & Associates was established in 2015, headquartered in Idaho Falls, ID with offices in Boise, ID and Richland, WA. We provide resource solutions for customers' project and program needs. Our services includes Project Management Services, Technical & Administrative Services and Facility Support Services. JFA's staff has 200+ years combined experience in engineering, nuclear safety, environmental management, project management and construction. We provide these technical services to a variety of government and commercial customers. JFA's core competencies include Staff Augmentation, Project Controls & Scheduling, Start-up & Commissioning, Oversight; Infrastructure, Construction, Facility & Configuration Management; Health & Safety Plans, Standard Operating Procedures, Cost Estimating & Budgeting; Environmental, Remediation, Safety & Health Programs and Quality Assurance Programs & Plans.