The order is Biden’s latest move to leverage the federal government’s wallet to achieve his policy goals. Biden last week directed federal contracting officials to increase the share of dollars spent at Black- and Latino-owned businesses and earlier this year requested a federal officials to write a plan to buy electric vehicles as a way to encourage companies and consumers to invest in the technology. Environmental officials have yet to publish that plan, even though Biden’s order asked for it to be done in April.

Federal spending on contracts reached a record high of $686 billion in fiscal year 2020, up 14% from the previous year due to Covid-19, according to Bloomberg Government’s federal contracting data. Defense contractor giants Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Technologies Corp., and General Dynamics Corp. received a combined $129.5 billion of that spending.

To contact the reporter on this story: Courtney Rozen in Washington at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernie Kohn at [email protected]