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Public-sector bids

GAO decided 1,688 bid protests in FY2025; 52% of protesters got relief

1,688 protests, 380 merit decisions, a 52% effectiveness rate, and a six-week shutdown that froze awards. Tracking federal solicitations to a win is a goal that never pauses.

  • US Government Accountability Office
1,688

bid protests filed in FY2025

GAO bid protest annual report, FY2025
52%

effectiveness rate: protesters who got relief

Covington, Inside Government Contracts
14%

sustain rate on 380 merit decisions

Covington, Inside Government Contracts

What happened

The story, from the record.

GAO's annual bid protest report to Congress, published December 12, 2025, counted 1,688 cases filed in fiscal 2025, down 6% from the year before. GAO issued 380 decisions on the merits and sustained 14% of them, in line with the 13% to 16% of recent years.

The effectiveness rate, the share of protesters who got some relief either through a sustained protest or the agency's voluntary corrective action, was 52%, the same as the year before. More cases are being resolved by agencies correcting course on their own than by a GAO decision.

The fiscal year also ended into the government shutdown that began October 1, 2025 and ran to November 12, during which agencies stopped posting new solicitations and making awards.

Behind each protest is a solicitation someone found, tracked through amendments and Q&A, bid on, lost, debriefed and challenged, all on deadlines the agency sets. Capture teams keep that watch across thousands of portals, and the opportunities they find late are the ones they lose.

How OneShot would run it

The goal this leaves open.

OneShot was not involved in this event. This is how the goal it describes would run as one OneShot goal: the objective, the steps per case, and the list price of each.

The goal

Watch every solicitation that matches the company's capabilities, catch every amendment and deadline, and have a researched bid-or-no-bid call on each within two days of posting.

  1. 01

    Watch the postings

    Pull new federal opportunities by NAICS code each day, with the contracting officer's published contact, and read every amendment and attachment.

    • Government Solicitations
    • Web Read
    $0.046
  2. 02

    Research the buyer

    Commission a cited brief on the agency's past awards for the same requirement, then enrich the incumbent and the likely teaming partners.

    • Research
    • Company Search
    • Company Enrichment
    $0.03
  3. 03

    Ask before the deadline

    Send questions before the Q&A window closes and read the answers from the inbox. After award, request the debrief in writing and call when the window is nearly shut.

    • Email send
    • Email Inbox
    • Voice call time
    • Call analysis
    $0.73
  4. 04

    Track the protest clock

    Check GAO's docket for the solicitation: protests filed by others, corrective action, and the 100-day decision date.

    • Browser
    $0.009
  5. 05

    Report

    A ranked shortlist with deadlines, and after award, debriefs obtained and protest windows, with a receipt for every contact.

    —

About $0.82 per case at list prices. Spend limits cap the run; every paid action returns a signed receipt; anything over your approval threshold waits for a person.

Sources

Where the figures come from.

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