Welcome to the first issue of The Morning Scout, the briefing from Federal Media Group. Each issue distills the week in federal contracting into the signals that should change what you do next.

This week, the FY2026 IT budget came into focus — and the story is concentration, not the top-line number. A handful of agencies are absorbing most of the new modernization money, and that is where capture attention should go.

We are also tracking a heavy quarter of recompetes across DHS, VA, and GSA, and a $4.2 billion VA health modernization award that displaced a long-running incumbent. The lesson repeats: incumbency is not safety.

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