Reference

The government-contracting glossary.

Every term a specialty sub meets in a federal solicitation, defined in plain language — with links into the guides where the details live. Link to any term with its anchor.

8(a) Business Development program: An SBA certification program for small businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. Lasts nine years per firm and unlocks 8(a) set-asides and sole-source awards. See set-asides explained.
Amendment: An official change to a solicitation — revised drawings, a moved bid date, answers to RFIs. Bidders must acknowledge every amendment; missing one can make a bid non-responsive.
Bid bond (bid guarantee): A surety's commitment that a bidder will sign the contract and furnish final bonds if awarded. On federal construction it's generally at least 20% of the bid price, capped at $3 million (FAR 28.101-2). See bonding explained.
CAGE code: The Commercial and Government Entity code — a five-character ID assigned automatically during SAM.gov registration, used to identify your facility in federal systems.
Capability statement: A one-page business resume for government buyers and primes: core competencies, differentiators, past performance, and company data (UEI, CAGE, NAICS, certifications, bonding). See the capability statement guide.
Davis-Bacon Act: The law requiring prevailing wages on federal construction contracts over $2,000 — effectively all of them. The required rates come from the wage determination in the solicitation packet.
Engineer's estimate / magnitude of construction: The government's own valuation of the work. Federal solicitations typically disclose a magnitude range (e.g. "between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000") rather than the exact estimate — use it to judge whether a job fits your bonding band.
FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation): The rulebook governing all federal procurement. Construction-relevant parts include Part 28 (bonds and insurance) and Part 36 (construction contracting); solicitation clauses cite it constantly.
HUBZone: An SBA program for firms with a principal office in a Historically Underutilized Business Zone and at least 35% of employees living in one. Brings set-asides plus a price-evaluation preference in open competitions. See set-asides explained.
IFB (Invitation for Bids): Sealed bidding: bids open publicly at a set time and the lowest responsive, responsible bidder wins on price. The most common format for straightforward federal construction. Compare RFP and RFQ.
Liquidated damages (LDs): A per-day amount the contractor owes for finishing late, stated in the contract (e.g. $1,500/day). A key schedule-risk signal — it's one of the fields JobsiteBids extracts from every parsed packet.
Miller Act: The statute (40 U.S.C. §§ 3131–3134) requiring performance and payment bonds — each 100% of contract price — on federal construction contracts over $150,000. The payment bond is a subcontractor's substitute for a mechanic's lien. See bonding explained.
NAICS code: The North American Industry Classification System code describing what work a solicitation covers — and which SBA size standard applies. Specialty trades live under 238xxx. Browse the construction NAICS directory.
Payment bond: The Miller Act bond protecting subcontractors and suppliers if the prime doesn't pay. First-tier subs can claim against it directly — no earlier than 90 days after last furnishing labor or materials, and no later than one year after.
Performance bond: The Miller Act bond protecting the government if the contractor defaults, set at 100% of contract price on federal construction over $150,000. Furnished before notice to proceed.
Period of performance: The contract's required duration — from notice to proceed to completion. Read it together with liquidated damages to price schedule risk.
Presolicitation notice: An advance notice that a solicitation is coming — your window to plan teaming, site logistics, and bonding before the clock starts. See how to read a federal solicitation.
Prevailing wage: The minimum hourly rate plus fringe benefits that must be paid on covered public work, set by the Davis-Bacon wage determination on federal jobs. Price labor from it, not your private-work rates.
Prime contractor: The firm holding the contract with the government, responsible for bonds and delivery. Specialty shops usually enter federal work subbing to primes first — see finding primes to sub for.
Recompete: A new competition for work whose existing contract is expiring. Recompetes are predictable — if you bid (or lost) the job last cycle, the next cycle is findable in advance in a searchable archive.
RFI (Request for Information): Either a market-research notice from an agency, or — during bidding — a bidder's written question about the documents. RFI answers arrive as amendments; the RFI deadline is a key date worth tracking.
RFP (Request for Proposals): A negotiated procurement: award weighs stated evaluation factors (past performance, technical approach) alongside price, and you write a proposal rather than just a number. Compare IFB.
RFQ (Request for Quotations): A simplified, faster procurement used for smaller acquisitions — the government requests quotes rather than sealed bids or full proposals.
SAM.gov: The federal System for Award Management: where every federal solicitation posts, where entities register to be paid, and where wage determinations live. Free to use. See the registration guide and how it compares to JobsiteBids.
SDVOSB: Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business — certified through the SBA's VetCert program. The VA in particular sets aside a large share of its construction for SDVOSBs. See set-asides explained.
Set-aside: A restriction limiting competition on a solicitation to qualifying small businesses (total small business, 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB). One of the strongest bid/no-bid signals — if you can't win it, don't read it.
Size standard: The SBA's revenue (or employee) ceiling for counting as "small" under a given NAICS code — $19.0M average annual receipts for most specialty trades, $45.0M for heavy/civil codes. Every code's standard is in the NAICS directory.
Solicitation: The official request for bids or proposals, plus its document packet — forms, specs, drawings, wage determination, attachments. See how to read one.
Sources-sought notice: Pre-solicitation market research asking "who out there can do this?" Responses help the agency decide set-aside strategy — answering when you qualify can shape the competition in your favor.
UEI (Unique Entity ID): The twelve-character identifier (successor to DUNS) issued during SAM.gov registration. The UEI itself never expires; the registration must be renewed every 365 days.
Wage determination: The schedule in the packet listing required prevailing wages and fringes by labor classification, issued in four construction categories (building, residential, highway, heavy). Published on SAM.gov.
WOSB / EDWOSB: Women-Owned (and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned) Small Business certifications, eligible for set-asides in industries where women-owned firms are underrepresented — including construction codes. See set-asides explained.

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