About the Numbers

The rankings of top contractors and top-spending agencies in this issue are compiled for Government Executive by Eagle Eye Publishers Inc. of Fairfax, Va., from data contained in the General Services Administration's Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation for fiscal 2006. The system gets its information from reports on contracting filed by agencies.

Most vendors in the rankings are private, for-profit U.S. companies; universities, nonprofit institutions and foreign-owned firms also are represented.

Companies ranked in this issue are parent companies; outlays to subsidiaries are "rolled up" to the parent. For joint ventures, we have assigned each partner an equal portion of payments made under the contract in 2006. Mergers and acquisitions are not reflected in the listings unless they became final before fiscal 2006 ended.

For More Information

Eagle Eye Publishers can be reached at (703) 359-8980, on the Web at www.eagleeyeinc.com or via e-mail at info@eagleeyeinc.com.