Washington State Department Of Health

Washington State Department of Health, a U.S. state government entity headquartered in Tumwater, Washington, serves federal agencies as a prime recipient and contractor for public health surveillance, disease prevention, vital records administration, environmental monitoring, and laboratory services. The department operates 96% of its awards as a prime and competes in full-and-open categories with no set-aside designations, reflecting its statutory role as the state's chief public health authority.

Customer concentration is significant and distributed across health and social service agencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention anchors the portfolio with 40 awards worth $18.9 million in combined potential value; the Social Security Administration follows with 32 awards valued at $13 million for enumeration-at-birth and electronic death registration services; the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies collectively dominate the top five funding sources. CDC Pittsburgh alone funds vaccine safety surveillance, drowning prevention, national death index operations, and disease surveillance work. The Social Security Administration awards cover vital records services (electronic death registration and enumeration at birth) valued at $2.969 million and $2.651 million respectively through 2027 and 2028. The Naval Sea Systems Command sustains a single-award indefinite delivery contract (ceiling $571,170 through September 2027) for environmental monitoring services in Tumwater supporting the Navy's nuclear program.

The department's capability portfolio centers on data collection, surveillance systems, and laboratory analysis supporting federal public health mandates. Recent representative work includes the Vaccine Safety Datalink Project (indefinite delivery contract, $4.255 million ceiling through April 2027) for post-marketing vaccine safety monitoring; enumeration and vital records processing for Social Security; environmental monitoring for NAVSEA compliance; Mammography Quality Standards Act inspections for the FDA ($1.186 million, sole-source award through July 2027); BioWatch laboratory support for the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office; and food safety surveillance for the FDA. The department also operates the Washington State Public Health Laboratories, conducting food microbiology, molecular detection, and radiochemistry work under a $588,020 FDA cooperative agreement through June 2030.

The grant footprint is substantial and diverse. WIC program administration alone represents over $107 million in obligated formula grants from USDA (food expenses, administrative costs, breastfeeding peer counselor services), with the department distributing funds to 25 sub-recipients across Washington counties and tribal governments. Major cooperative agreements and project grants include the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant ($23.174 million, October 2025 through September 2027) from HRSA; the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund capitalization grants from EPA Region 10 (multiple awards totaling tens of millions for infrastructure financing); the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant from CDC; and disease surveillance and emergency preparedness grants from CDC for HIV prevention, tuberculosis elimination, epidemiology and laboratory capacity, and hospital preparedness. The department acts as the state's administrative recipient on these formula awards and passes funding through to local health jurisdictions, federally qualified health centers, tribal governments, and community-based organizations. Grant activity reflects federal public health priorities: vaccine-preventable disease prevention and response (cooperative agreement with CDC, $12.8 million potential value through June 2030); maternal mortality review and perinatal quality improvement; overdose data-to-action surveillance; and environmental health assessments and radon risk reduction.

Activity has remained steady at 37 to 49 awards annually over the past five years, with 53 awards (combined potential value $2.7 million) reaching completion within the next twenty-four months and therefore facing recompete. The department's parent is the Washington Department of Public Instruction, which provides organizational oversight. Federal contracting is registered in SAM since 2002 and operates under the department's statutory public health authority, positioning it to compete without competitive restrictions in full-and-open procurements where statute or regulation designates state health departments as eligible recipients. The portfolio demonstrates deep, long-standing relationships with CDC, USDA, HHS, EPA, Social Security Administration, and DoD agencies, with contract vehicles and grants structured for multi-year performance and recurring annual funding cycles characteristic of public health infrastructure funding.