{
  "family": "spending-records",
  "checked": "2026-10-09",
  "scope": "Worked examples from public USAspending records. This is not a complete contractor, agency, national spending or subcontracting database.",
  "id": "negative-contract-obligations",
  "title": "A negative contract transaction is a reduction, not automatically a scandal.",
  "description": "Read negative federal contract obligations with a real matching transaction pair, net arithmetic, source labels and clear evidence limits.",
  "category": "Transaction history",
  "answer": "Keep negative obligations in the calculation and investigate their context. NASA’s ISS deorbit contract reports +$132,474,874.08 on July 2, 2025 and −$132,474,874.08 on July 7, 2025. Those two entries net to zero. The amounts alone do not tell us why the adjustment happened, establish misconduct, or prove the entire contract was canceled.",
  "facts": [
    {
      "label": "Contract",
      "value": "80JSC024CA002",
      "sourceUrl": "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_AWD_80JSC024CA002_8000_-NONE-_-NONE-/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Modification P00011",
      "value": "July 2, 2025: +$132,474,874.08",
      "sourceUrl": "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/transactions/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Modification P00012",
      "value": "July 7, 2025: −$132,474,874.08",
      "sourceUrl": "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/transactions/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Reported action type for both",
      "value": "FUNDING ONLY ACTION",
      "sourceUrl": "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/transactions/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Net of this selected pair, calculated",
      "value": "$0.00",
      "sourceUrl": "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/transactions/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Cumulative award obligations",
      "value": "$425,568,844.14",
      "sourceUrl": "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_AWD_80JSC024CA002_8000_-NONE-_-NONE-/"
    }
  ],
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Do the net arithmetic before interpreting the story",
      "paragraphs": [
        "The two selected modifications have equal magnitudes and opposite signs. Counting only P00011 would add $132,474,874.08 to the apparent activity while ignoring the reversing entry five days later. Counting both gives zero for this pair, not zero for the entire contract.",
        "The complete retrieved transaction list has 23 rows. Its signed sum matches the $425,568,844.14 cumulative obligation figure. For FY2025 alone, 11 rows sum to $400,351,633.10. These checks show why one selected row is an unreliable spending headline."
      ],
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/transactions/",
        "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_AWD_80JSC024CA002_8000_-NONE-_-NONE-/"
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "Keep three layers separate",
      "paragraphs": [
        "Observation: the record contains a positive funding-only action followed by an equal negative funding-only action. Calculation: their net amount is zero. Explanation: the reason for that sequence is not established by these two fields.",
        "USAspending describes de-obligations as decreases to previous obligations, which can reflect corrections or new information. That general definition does not identify the cause of this particular pair. A matching amount is not permission to invent an explanation."
      ],
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/transactions/",
        "https://www.usaspending.gov/data/Federal-Spending-Guide.pdf"
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "Ask for the missing record, not a confession",
      "paragraphs": [
        "If the reason matters, identify the award, modification numbers and action dates in a focused request to the responsible agency. Ask for the releasable modification documents or an explanation of the recorded funding change. Do not accuse a contractor or agency based only on a negative number.",
        "A reduction is not necessarily cash recovered, a repayment, a project cancellation or money that can legally fund something else. Those conclusions require different records."
      ],
      "sourceUrls": [
        "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_AWD_80JSC024CA002_8000_-NONE-_-NONE-/"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "steps": [
    "Preserve the sign, modification number and action date of every row.",
    "Inspect adjacent changes and the complete award history.",
    "Compute both the selected pair and the full signed total.",
    "Separate observation, arithmetic and unverified explanation.",
    "Request the specific modification documents when the reason is important."
  ],
  "caution": "This is an accounting-reading example, not a finding of fraud, waste, cancellation or repayment. We did not inspect the underlying modification documents and do not claim to know why this pair occurred.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "ISS deorbit award detail",
      "url": "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_AWD_80JSC024CA002_8000_-NONE-_-NONE-/",
      "asOf": "2026-10-09"
    },
    {
      "title": "USAspending transaction history API",
      "url": "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/transactions/",
      "asOf": "2026-10-09"
    },
    {
      "title": "Transaction endpoint documentation",
      "url": "https://github.com/fedspendingtransparency/usaspending-api/blob/master/usaspending_api/api_contracts/contracts/v2/transactions.md",
      "asOf": "2026-10-09"
    },
    {
      "title": "Analyst’s Guide: negative obligations",
      "url": "https://www.usaspending.gov/data/Federal-Spending-Guide.pdf",
      "asOf": "2026-10-09"
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    {
      "label": "Search federal contracts and grants",
      "url": "/every-federal-dollar"
    },
    {
      "label": "America’s Public Resource Desk",
      "url": "/resources"
    },
    {
      "label": "Prepare a focused public-records request",
      "url": "/foia-request-builder"
    }
  ],
  "faq": [
    [
      "Does a negative obligation prove the project was canceled?",
      "No. It identifies a reduction in reported obligations. Cancellation needs separate evidence."
    ],
    [
      "Should I drop negative rows when adding transactions?",
      "No. Keep their signs when calculating net obligations; otherwise the total can be overstated."
    ]
  ],
  "award": {
    "id": "CONT_AWD_80JSC024CA002_8000_-NONE-_-NONE-",
    "transactions": [
      {
        "modification": "P00011",
        "actionDate": "2025-07-02",
        "obligation": 132474874.08
      },
      {
        "modification": "P00012",
        "actionDate": "2025-07-07",
        "obligation": -132474874.08
      }
    ],
    "calculatedPairNet": 0,
    "allTransactionCount": 23,
    "totalObligation": 425568844.14,
    "fiscalYear2025NetObligations": 400351633.1,
    "sourceUrl": "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/transactions/"
  },
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-09",
  "maintenance": "Dated snapshots, not a real-time feed. Recheck the government record before using a value or status.",
  "attribution": "America.co Public Resource Desk",
  "attributionUrl": "/editorial#desk",
  "metaTitle": "Negative Contract Obligations | Read the Net Amount",
  "route": "/spending-records/negative-contract-obligations",
  "file": "spending-records/negative-contract-obligations.html"
}