Gold PT Uniform Phaseout Set as Navy Streamlines Sailors’ Seabag

February 18, 2026, Military Times, the Navy will be cutting back the number of mandatory uniforms issued to sailors, the service’s director of Military Personnel Plans and Policy said.

Read more HERE.

NOI to Sole Source Winter Bee INC for JROTC PT shorts

February 23, 2026, NOI to Sole Source Winter Bee INC for JROTC PT shorts.

Contractor Awarded Name: WINTER BEE, INC

Base and All Options Value (Total Contract Value): $183,642.50

See the SAM Notiofication.

Ending Collection of IEEPA Midnight Tonight

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has provided guidance regarding the February 20, 2026 Executive Order (EO), “Ending Certain Tariff Actions,” that terminates the collection of the additional ad valorem duties imposed pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

Duties imposed pursuant to IEEPA under the following presidential actions, including all modifications and amendments, will no longer be in effect and will no longer be collected for goods entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:00 a.m. eastern time on February 24, 2026:

• Executive Order 14193, Imposing Duties To Address the Flow of Illicit Drugs Across Our Northern Border, 90 Fed. Reg. 9113 (Feb. 1, 2025), as amended;
• Executive Order 14194, Imposing Duties To Address the Situation at Our Southern Border, 90 Fed. Reg. 9117 (Feb. 1, 2025), as amended;
• Executive Order 14195, Imposing Duties To Address the Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain in the People's Republic of China, 90 Fed. Reg. 9121 (Feb. 1, 2025), as amended;
• Executive Order 14245, Imposing Tariffs on Countries Importing Venezuelan Oil; 90 Fed. Reg. 13829 (Mar. 24, 2025);
• Executive Order 14257, Regulating Imports With a Reciprocal Tariff To Rectify Trade Practices That Contribute to Large and Persistent Annual United States Goods Trade Deficits, 90 Fed. Reg. 15041 (Apr. 2, 2025), as amended;
• Executive Order 14323, Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Brazil, 90 Fed. Reg. 37739 (July 30, 2025); and
• Executive Order 14329, Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of the Russian Federation, 90 Fed. Reg. 38701 (Aug. 6, 2025), as amended.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will update the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) programming, and all Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) numbers applicable to the IEEPA tariffs will be inactive in ACE as of February 24, 2026.

This EO affects IEEPA duties only and does not affect any other duties, including duties imposed under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended, and section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. CBP will provide additional guidance to the trade community through CSMS messages as appropriate.

What is AGOA?

What is AGOA? The African Growth and Opportunity Act (P.L. 106-200, as amended) created a nonreciprocal U.S. trade preference program, also referred to as AGOA, to provide duty-free access to the U.S. market for most exports from eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The act also requires an annual U.S.-SSA consultative forum to discuss trade-related issues and AGOA implementation. Additionally, AGOA provides direction to selected U.S. government agencies regarding their trade and investment support activities in the region. AGOA has been a cornerstone of U.S. trade policy toward SSA since 2000. Through AGOA, Congress seeks to increase U.S.-SSA trade and investment ties, promote economic growth through trade, and encourage the rule of law and market-oriented reforms. Congress may renew the program, which is scheduled to expire in December 2026 following a one-year extension (P.L. 119-75), and modify the program to promote other priorities in the region, such as strengthening U.S. trade and investment ties with SSA and increasing regional participation in global value chains.Authorization. Congress established AGOA in 2000, and has extended and modified the program several times. Most recently, Section 5019, Division I of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (P.L. 119-75) reauthorized AGOA through December 2026 and retroactively extended duty-free benefits from September 2025 when the previous authorization expired. AGOA was last amended under the African Growth and Opportunity Act and Millennium Challenge Act Modernization Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-167), which required the Administration to provide information on AGOA via an official website; promote AGOA utilization by beneficiaries and export diversification under AGOA; support regional trade facilitation; and educate African entrepreneurs on U.S. counterterrorism policies.

Apparel and Third-Country Fabric Provision. AGOA's duty-free treatment of certain apparel products is significant because apparel articles (1) face relatively high U.S. tariffs; (2) are mostly excluded from GSP; and (3) can be readily manufactured in developing countries as their production requires relatively limited skilled labor and capital investment. Production in this sector can be a first-step toward higher value-added manufacturing. The third-country fabric provision in AGOA is a major factor enabling AGOA countries' competitiveness in the sector. This provision extends AGOA duty-free benefits to limited amounts of U.S. apparel imports from least-developed SSA countries even if the yarns and fabrics used in their production are sourced from non-AGOA countries (e.g., apparel assembled in Kenya with China-sourced fabrics can qualify for duty-free treatment under AGOA).

Read more HERE.

Chairmen of Senate and House Armed Services Committees Back President Trump's $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget Topline Proposal

U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-MS, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, R-AL, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, issued the following statement praising President Trump’s announcement of a $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027:

“We commend President Trump for committing to a $1.5 trillion defense budget. This is exactly the kind of investment it will take to rebuild our military and restore American leadership on the world stage.

Read more HERE.

President Trump ID's Military Apparels and Input Thereof for Defense Production Act

On February 19, 2026, the Executive Office of the President published in the Federal Register (91 FR 8063) Memorandum of February 13, 2026, Presidential Waiver of Statutory Requirements Pursuant to Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as Amended .

Memorandum for the Secretary of War

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (the ‘‘Act’’) (50 U.S.C. 4533), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 303(a)(7)(B) of the Act, that action is necessary to avert shortfalls in critical Department of War supply chains that would severely impair national defense capability. Therefore, I waive the requirements of section 303(a)(2)–(a)(6) of the Act for supply chains critical to reviving the defense industrial base.

Supply chains encompassed within this memorandum include those associated with supporting the following critical sectors identified in ‘‘Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States: Report to President Donald J. Trump by the Interagency Task Force in Fulfillment of Executive Order 13806’’ (September 2018):

1. aircraft—fixed wing, rotorcraft, and unmanned aerial systems required for air-to-air and air-to-ground military operations and transport;
2. protection from chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats and attacks;
3. ground systems—tracked and wheeled vehicles for combat, combat support, and combat service support; nuclear warheads and testing platforms; radar and electronic warfare systems; shipbuilding industrial base;
4. soldier systems—products necessary to maximize the Warfighter’s survivability, lethality, sustainability, mobility, combat effectiveness, and field quality of life, including weapons, body armor and MILITARY APPAREL, and the MATERIALS AND COMPONENTS THEREOF extending to relevant life support auxiliary components;
5. space—satellites, launch services, ground systems satellite components and subsystems, networks, engineering services, payloads, propulsion, terminals (fixed and mobile), and electronics;
6. electronics for defense systems, including microelectronics; machine tools and industrial controls to support production and prototyping operations for defense capabilities;
7. organic industrial base; and workforce training pipelines in support of industrial resources or technology items critical to national defense.

FY27 Defense Authorization Request Form (Ben Ray Luján, Dem., New Mexico)

Senator Ben Ray Luján (Dem., New Mexico) is accepting requests for the FY 2027 NDAA