Maryland is home to more than 60 diverse federal facilities, including two that are currently at the forefront of our world. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves and regulates drugs and vaccines that are critical to global pandemic crises. And the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation’s medical research agency conducting and funding research of medicines and devices that are indispensable to healthcare today.

In addition to the FDA and NIH, there are dozens of other key federal agencies that are within Maryland that do everything from space exploration to new strawberry cultivars, from weather prediction to collecting taxes, from industry standards to economic statistics, from earth science to ocean science, and from heliophysics to biotechnology.

You may be surprised to learn that there are many other agencies with their headquarters in Maryland, including:

• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS)
• National Cancer Institute (NCI)
• National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST)
• National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

Other significant federal operations in Maryland include the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; and The U.S. Coast Guard Yard.

Combined, these agencies have a huge economic impact, employing nearly 89,000 people. The largest employers are NIH with 18,000, FDA with 16,000, and SSA with 12,000 employees. $37 billion of federal contracts are performed in Maryland, including $22.8 billion at civilian agencies.

Additionally, the health and sciences sector play a huge role in Maryland, with more than 74 federal laboratories in the state. With significant federal funding in our state, there is plenty of innovation and commercialization coming out of our labs and universities. Johns Hopkins University receives the most R&D funding than any other higher education institution, and twice as much as the nearest competitor.

Learn more about the agencies by reading their profiles on our website. Then take a look at our Business to Government tool – a website where you will find profiles on 40 military agencies, portals to major prime contractors, and information on how to do business with the state and counties.

Learn more about the military and federal agencies in Maryland