In my experience, government is indeed much slower in approving outlays for team projects. One of my interview questions for prospective bosses of mine, is something along the lines of:

- Suppose I am on your team , and I want to develop a prototype/PoC, which costs $1,000, and you're okay with it

- What is the process to get approval for it?

- How much time elapses between starting the approval process and receiving funding/greenlight to start spending?

In my current job, the answers were "if I'm okay with the idea, you can start immediately".

In a previous one I left, it required CEO approval (hence why I ask now).