SAM.gov Exclusions - Composition
The federal exclusion list is mostly people, and three agencies account for 90% of it
Of 324,126 active SAM.gov exclusion records, 258,536 are classified as individuals - 79.8% of the list. The top three excluding agencies, HHS, OPM, and OFAC, account for 292,197 records, or 90.1%. This is a descriptive count of the active registry by source-published classification and agency code; no excluded party is named.
Key findings
of active SAM.gov exclusion records are individuals: 258,536 of 324,126 active records as queried 2026-06-20.
records come from three excluding agencies - HHS, OPM, and OFAC - which is 90.1% of the active list.
is HHS's share of the active registry (137,396 records), the largest single excluding-agency slice in this snapshot.
is OPM's share (80,948 records). OPM records are largely statutory debarments, so the count is reported as a program category, not as an accusation.
is OFAC's share (73,853 records). OFAC entries are sanctions designations folded into the federal exclusion file.
At a glance
Who is on the active list
SAM.gov publishes a classification for each active exclusion record. On this snapshot, the dominant classification is Individual. Special Entity Designations form the second-largest block, followed by firms and vessels. The table reports records, not unique people or organizations.
| Classification | Records | Share of active list |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | 258,536 | 79.8% |
| Special Entity Designation | 46,866 | 14.5% |
| Firm | 16,243 | 5.0% |
| Vessel | 2,481 | 0.8% |
Which agencies account for the active list
The excluding-agency field is also concentrated. HHS is the largest slice, OPM is second, and OFAC is third. OPM records are largely statutory debarments; OFAC records are sanctions designations that SAM.gov carries in the federal exclusion file. The point is administrative composition, not a claim that one agency is more severe than another.
| Excluding agency | Records | Share of active list |
|---|---|---|
| HHS | 137,396 | 42.4% |
| OPM | 80,948 | 25.0% |
| OFAC | 73,853 | 22.8% |
| DOJ | 6,490 | 2.0% |
| HUD | 4,464 | 1.4% |
| EPA | 4,375 | 1.3% |
| No agency recorded | 4,335 | 1.3% |
| USN | 1,736 | 0.5% |
| ICE | 1,658 | 0.5% |
| DLA | 1,237 | 0.4% |
Why this is different from the name-only study
The sibling name-only study asks whether the public record carries a machine-matchable UEI or CAGE code. This page asks a different question: what kind of parties are in the active registry, and which agency code issued the exclusion record. The two findings connect, because individual records are much less likely to carry contracting identifiers, but the SQL and published tables here are classification and agency counts only.
What this means for screening
The active SAM.gov exclusion file combines different administrative categories. A roster screen cannot treat it as a company-only contractor table: most active records are individuals, while a large OFAC block enters the same file as sanctions designations. For roster monitoring, see exclusion and sanction-list screening. For entity-level federal records, use the /gov/entity directory.
Methodology
The study uses the active slice of public.sam_exclusions, the Fonteum warehouse table populated from SAM.gov Exclusions. The two source fields are classification and excluding_agency, filtered to status='Active'. Counts are grouped and sorted descending. Records with no excluding-agency value are shown as "No agency recorded" in the page and CSV.
The snapshot is signed, attested, chained, and re-checkable through Fonteum's snapshot process. It is aggregate-only by construction: this page and its downloads carry counts, source labels, and dates, but no person, firm, vessel, or designation name.
Reproduce this
These are the two aggregate queries used for the committed snapshot:
-- The Federal Blacklist Is Mostly People - and Three Agencies Run It. -- Source: public.sam_exclusions (SAM.gov Exclusions), active records only. -- Re-running these aggregate queries against the 2026-06-20 snapshot reproduces -- the classification and excluding-agency counts in the committed snapshot. SELECT classification, count(*) FROM sam_exclusions WHERE status='Active' GROUP BY classification ORDER BY 2 DESC; -- Individual 258,536 -- Special Entity Designation 46,866 -- Firm 16,243 -- Vessel 2,481 SELECT excluding_agency, count(*) FROM sam_exclusions WHERE status='Active' GROUP BY excluding_agency ORDER BY 2 DESC; -- HHS 137,396 -- OPM 80,948 -- OFAC 73,853 -- DOJ 6,490 -- HUD 4,464 -- EPA 4,375 -- null 4,335 -- USN 1,736 -- ICE 1,658 -- DLA 1,237
Re-check the source snapshot
Every figure traces to a signed source snapshot. The SAM.gov exclusion pull is content-hashed and chained, so the aggregate can be re-checked against the attestation.
Re-check a snapshot -> or review the source-family registry at /sources.
How to cite this
Fonteum (2026). The Federal Blacklist Is Mostly People - and Three Agencies Run It. Derived from SAM.gov Exclusions, queried 2026-06-20. https://fonteum.com/gov/research/federal-exclusion-composition-2026
Canonical URL: https://fonteum.com/gov/research/federal-exclusion-composition-2026 · License: U.S. Government Works (public domain; 17 U.S.C. §105)
Related evidence
- Sanctions and exclusion-list screening →
- Federal contractor records by UEI →
- Sources registry →
- The SAM exclusion list - what it is and how to check it →
- Federal Suspension and Debarment Scorecard →
- The Name-Only Exclusion List →
- The Leakage Report →
- The State of Federal Contractor Integrity 2026 →
- The US + EU Sanctions Universe →
Limitations
- This is a snapshot of active SAM.gov exclusion records as queried 2026-06-20, not a historical time series and not a count of unique people or organizations.
- Classification and agency labels are source-published administrative fields. They are not normalized into legal conclusions or severity rankings.
- The agency table shows the ten highest-volume excluding-agency rows. Smaller agencies are included in the total but not individually displayed in this page table.
- This page does not identify any excluded party. Confirm a specific party's current status at the official SAM.gov source before acting.
Sources
One primary government source: SAM.gov Exclusions, the U.S. federal exclusion and debarment registry published by the General Services Administration.
Source: SAM.gov exclusion extract, pulled 2026-06-20. Confirm current status at SAM.gov →
Frequently asked questions
What share of active federal exclusions are individuals?
As queried on 2026-06-20, 258,536 of 324,126 active SAM.gov exclusion records were classified as Individual, or 79.8%. The other active records were 46,866 Special Entity Designations, 16,243 firms, and 2,481 vessels. These are aggregate record counts from SAM.gov, not a list of people.
Which agencies account for most active exclusions?
HHS, OPM, and OFAC together account for 292,197 of 324,126 active SAM.gov exclusion records, or 90.1%. HHS accounts for 42.4%, OPM for 25.0%, and OFAC for 22.8%.
Is this a finding of misconduct by any person, firm, vessel, or agency?
No. This study is descriptive. It reports how the active SAM.gov Exclusions file is distributed by classification and excluding agency. It names no excluded party, does not assign a rating or score, and makes no claim about any individual record beyond the aggregate counts published here.
Why treat OPM and OFAC neutrally?
Because the excluding-agency field is an administrative source field. OPM exclusions are largely statutory debarments, while OFAC records are sanctions designations that SAM.gov includes in the federal exclusion file. The study reports the source's counts by agency code and classification without converting those counts into a claim about intent, conduct, or severity.
How can I reproduce these numbers?
Use the SQL linked on this page against public.sam_exclusions: one GROUP BY classification query and one GROUP BY excluding_agency query, both filtered to status='Active'. The JSON and CSV downloads are committed aggregate snapshots generated from those results.