DC Explained: Tracking San Diego’s Federal Funding Performance, by the Numbers
As seen on Voice of San Diego, PIC’s Senior Vice President Alan Berube explores how the region fared fiscally during the first year of the second Trump administration and 119th Congress.
An excerpt: Overall, recipients of federal contracts and grants in San Diego County—businesses, governments, nonprofits, and educational institutions—netted $17.2 billion last year, down only slightly from $17.6 billion in 2024.
Most of these dollars—a little over 70 percent—come to the region in the form of contracts, and largely from the U.S. Defense Department. They fund the building of ships, aircraft, and related technologies by major local defense contractors such as General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and General Atomics.
Even so, San Diego’s federal grant haul of almost $5 billion in 2025 impresses for a region of its size. That nearly matched the sum awarded last year in Greater Seattle, a region with 25 percent more residents than San Diego County.
