Posted by
Cost Estimating NewsBrief: February 20, 2026
Department of War Seeks Industry Input for FAR Overhaul Phase 2
(Executive Gov) The Department of War has released a letter to the defense industrial base and acquisition stakeholders, requesting input on phase two of its Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation, or FAR, Overhaul initiative aimed at reducing regulatory burden and accelerating defense procurement. The War Department said Friday the letter, issued Feb. 10, outlines phase one class deviations under the initiative and reflects ongoing efforts to streamline acquisition regulations. According to the letter, phase two seeks recommendations to revise or eliminate FAR and Defense FAR Supplement, or DFARS, provisions to accelerate technology fielding and system modernization. Read More
The Pentagon says it’s getting its AI providers on ‘the same baseline’
(Defense One) After weeks of back-and-forth with AI company Anthropic, the Pentagon is actively talking with all four major U.S. AI players—Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and xAI—to ensure the companies and the Defense Department are at “the same baseline” regarding Pentagon expectations, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering said Tuesday. “We actually signed contracts with all four of them over the summer without a lot of specificity,” Emil Michael told a group of venture capital investors during an Amazon Web Services event. “Now we want to deploy [them] on our system so other people can build agents and pilots, and deploy it,” he said. In other words, after months of exercises and experiments, the Pentagon is looking to allow different command elements and business entities to build AI agents that can perform a wider variety of tasks with minimal human oversight. Read More
Labor launches new open data portal
(NextGov/FCW) The Labor Department on Wednesday publicly unveiled a modernized open data portal that it said would provide more granular access to U.S. workforce statistics. In a press release, the agency said the new platform — which is currently operating in beta — “will replace its antiquated and cumbersome enforcement data page, which will be decommissioned on Feb. 23.” Labor said the portal will provide access to a wider range of data than is currently available on its legacy platform, including statistics on weekly U.S. unemployment insurance claims, federal contractor veteran employment and county-level childcare prices. Read More
Congressional report recommends ‘FedRAMP’ for commercial data brokers
(Federal News Network) Amid persistent concerns about how agencies make use of data brokers, a new congressionally chartered report recommends setting up an authorization framework to regulate the federal government’s use of commercially available information. Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) this week released a new report on modernizing the Privacy Act of 1974. The 68-page document features a range of proposals to update the 52-year-old law. Trahan’s report has garnered attention for addressing Privacy Act vulnerabilities allegedly exploited in high-profile instances by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) personnel over the last year. Read More
ICEAA’s NewsBrief is a collection of articles relevant to the cost estimating and analysis community that is delivered weekly to current ICEAA members. To advertise in NewsBrief, contact iceaa@iceaaonline.org.