Never Say "Assume" — The One Word That Wins Federal Contract Disputes

By Sean & Doug Reitmeyer — GCExperts. Written from real contractor conversations, calls, and workshops.

Write down the word assume. Now draw a big X through it. Never use that word again in a government job. Here's why, and it's one of the most expensive lessons in federal contracting.

You remember what the word spells out: assume makes an ass out of you and me. On a federal job, it's worse than that. The minute you say "I assumed," the government's position is ready-made: you assumed wrong. Assumption is a hole in your contract, and the government is professionally good at walking through holes in contracts.

The replacement word is interpret. Interpretation is your right. The government drafted the solicitation. It had the chance to say anything it wanted. It could have written "remove the old walk pads and install brand new ones, this exact make and model." It chose different language. And when the government writes vague language, you get to interpret it — as long as your interpretation is reasonable for a contractor.

Here's the rule in plain form: even if the government's interpretation is more reasonable than yours, as long as yours is reasonable for a contractor, you win. Why? Because they had the pen. They had every opportunity to be specific and they weren't. The burden of the unclear language falls on the people who wrote it, not the people who had to build from it.

So you never say, "I assumed the specs meant this." You say, "I interpreted the specs to mean this, here's my reasonable reading, and here's the cost difference." One sentence is an admission. The other is a claim. Same facts, opposite outcomes.

This one habit — swapping assumed for interpreted — is worth more than any clause you'll ever memorize. Assumptions you pay for. Interpretations you get paid for. Write the X through assume today, and put it in your company's vocabulary policy. Your estimator, your superintendent, your project manager — none of them ever say assume again. Not in emails, not in meetings, not on the phone. Because on a federal job, everything you say is recorded somewhere, and someday the government will hand it back to you. Hand them interpretations, not assumptions.