How much has the State Department obligated in the District of Columbia?

USAspending.gov records $21,374,128,726.80 in obligations for awarding agency 072 (Department of State) with place of performance in the District of Columbia. That sum covers 2,097 awards. It is an obligation total, not an outlay total, and it is limited to this agency code and geography pair.

Does $21.4 billion mean the State Department spent that much in DC?

No. The figure is obligations — legal commitments — on awards tagged to agency 072 and DC place of performance. Outlays can differ. Place of performance is a USAspending geography field, not proof that every dollar was disbursed to District vendors or residents.

Why does this page use agency code 072?

The underlying aggregate keys awards by awarding agency code. This join uses 072, labeled Department of State, and 2,097 awards. Another State Department–District pair on this site uses a different agency code and a different dollar total, so the codes are not aliases for the same slice.

Is this the State Department’s entire budget?

No. The $21,374,128,726.80 total is only the intersection of agency 072 and District of Columbia place of performance. Awards the same agency codes to other states, and awards other agencies code to DC, sit on their own pages.

Department of State in District of Columbia

Federal obligations from Department of State to District of Columbia

Total obligated

$21.68B

Awards

USAspending.gov records $21,374,128,726.80 in Department of State obligations coded to agency 072 with place of performance in the District of Columbia, spread across 2,097 awards. That pair is the largest State–District join in this table: a single awarding agency and a single geography, not a national total and not an outlay figure. The dollars are obligations — legal commitments — rather than checks already cashed. Average obligation per award is about $10.19 million, which is a ratio of those two facts, not a typical contract size for every row.

Key figures

Agency 072 (Department of State) shows $21,374,128,726.80 in DC place-of-performance obligations across 2,097 awards.
Average obligation per award is about $10.19 million ($21,374,128,726.80 ÷ 2,097).
The number is a USAspending obligation aggregate, not outlays and not the department’s worldwide total.
DC is place of performance, not a claim about who received services or where work physically occurred.
A second State Department–DC join uses a different agency code; the two rows are separate filters.

What the State Department–District of Columbia join is

This page exists because two USAspending dimensions meet: awarding agency 072, labeled Department of State, and place-of-performance state DC. The headline $21,374,128,726.80 is the sum of obligations on awards that carry both tags. It is not the Department of State’s worldwide budget, not the District’s entire federal inflow, and not a claim that every dollar was spent inside a District ZIP code on the day it was obligated. It is a filter on a public awards table.

The 2,097 award count is equally specific. A small number of large awards can dominate a dollar total even when the row count looks modest; dividing $21,374,128,726.80 by 2,097 produces about $10.19 million per award on average. That average hides the mix of contracts, grants, and other instruments in the underlying file. The join does not rank the District against other states, and it does not explain why a particular vendor or grantee sits in the capital.

Agency 072 as the awarding side

USAspending identifies this awarding agency as Department of State under code 072. That code is part of the pair; another Department of State slice on this site uses a different agency code and a different obligation total, so the two rows are not interchangeable. Readers comparing this page with the agency-wide Department of State profile should treat 072 as the filter that produced $21,374,128,726.80 in the District, not as a synonym for every State Department account.

The agency page for 072 aggregates that department’s awards without requiring District geography. The District page aggregates all awarding agencies with DC place of performance. Only the overlay at /states/dc/agencies/072/ applies both filters at once, which is why the tie page cites 2,097 awards rather than either parent table’s full inventory.

Full analysis: Department of State (agency 072) obligations in the District of Columbia →

Questions

How much has the State Department obligated in the District of Columbia?: USAspending.gov records $21,374,128,726.80 in obligations for awarding agency 072 (Department of State) with place of performance in the District of Columbia. That sum covers 2,097 awards. It is an obligation total, not an outlay total, and it is limited to this agency code and geography pair.
Does $21.4 billion mean the State Department spent that much in DC?: No. The figure is obligations — legal commitments — on awards tagged to agency 072 and DC place of performance. Outlays can differ. Place of performance is a USAspending geography field, not proof that every dollar was disbursed to District vendors or residents.
Why does this page use agency code 072?: The underlying aggregate keys awards by awarding agency code. This join uses 072, labeled Department of State, and 2,097 awards. Another State Department–District pair on this site uses a different agency code and a different dollar total, so the codes are not aliases for the same slice.
Is this the State Department’s entire budget?: No. The $21,374,128,726.80 total is only the intersection of agency 072 and District of Columbia place of performance. Awards the same agency codes to other states, and awards other agencies code to DC, sit on their own pages.

USAspending.gov aggregate of federal obligations by state and awarding agency. Obligations are not outlays.

How this pair fits

Department of State (agency 072) obligations in the District of Columbia

All data ties →