Twenty percent (125) of the elite 2000 and 2004 Bush donors are affiliated with 102 companies that received a total of more than $84 billion ($84,131,701,000) in federal contracts in fiscal year 2002 (which ended on September 30, 2002).

Pioneer war profiteer George David heads United Technologies Corp (UTC). Apart from owning Otis elevators and Carrier air conditioners, UTC is a major defense contractor that makes missiles, jet engines and Sikorsky helicopters. UTC had more than $80 billion in federal contracts in fiscal 2002, making it far and away the largest Pioneer-affiliated federal contractor.

Two top contractors, EDS ($800 million) and Affiliated Computer Services ($525 million), receive huge government data-processing contracts. A fourth top contractor, Washington Group International, is a major U.S. contractor in Iraq.

EDS fought to weather a crisis in the last two years after it bit off more federal contract work than it could swallow. The company slashed earnings forecasts in 2002 due to heavy up-front investments in a $7 billion Navy contract. EDS fired its CEO after the Securities and Exchange Commission launched a formal probe of related transactions in 2003. The following year the General Accounting Office (GAO) urged the U.S. Department of Housing to rebid an $860 million contract with EDS after concluding that the agency could not provide adequate support for its decision to reject a lower bid from Lockheed Martin. John Engler--who became a 2000 Bush Pioneer when he was governor of Michigan--became head of EDS’ state and local government contracting business soon after he left the governor’s office in 2003. EDS President Jeff Heller also took the 2000 Pioneer pledge but apparently never raised the full $100,000.

After Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) won a 2003 U.S. Department of Education contract worth up to $2.3 billion, it announced that its would outsource almost one-fifth of that contract to competitor EDS. ACS has been dogged by persistent questions about whether it obtains government contracts as a result of its computer or lobbying prowess. After local Texas workforce boards found that they could save money by shifting job-training contracts from ACS to smaller firms, ACS fought back in 2003 with lawsuits and special-interest legislation. A 2004 audit by Florida’s Agency for Workforce Innovation found that ACS over billed county governments by more than $1 million. Downgrading ACS’ stock at the time, an analyst said, “Market perceptions regarding ACS’ corporate ethics are reaching, or perhaps reached, the tipping point.” After former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith served the 2000 Bush campaign as both a Pioneer and domestic policy advisor, ACS hired him as its “senior vice president for strategic initiatives and e-government.” Around the same time, the GAO appointed Goldsmith to the panel that Congress had just created to study how to “outsource” more government jobs to private contractors.

Steve Hanks just recently became a Bush Pioneer but his Washington Group International (WGI) is a massive contractor with the Pentagon and Department of Energy. WGI is a major contractor in Afghanistan and Iraq. WGI is among the five Iraq contractors that the Pentagon has singled out for an in-depth cost review.

2004 Pioneer Frederick Smith is the Chair and CEO of the next-largest federal contractor. A competitor of the U.S. postal service, FedEx got almost $403 million in fiscal year 2002 federal contracts.