In the first six months of fiscal 2026, the federal government awarded $18.4 billion in no-bid contracts under the "emergency exception" — more than four times the total for all of the previous year, with 92 percent going to a single agency, DHS. Competitive bidding exists to prevent political patronage, fraud, and corruption. Here's what the law permits, what's happening now, and how and why authoritarian governments use no-bid contracts.