Brief 05 · Procurement
Publish the demand signal.
Nobody can finance a production line against a guess.
Brief
The problem
A manufacturer deciding whether to add a line needs to know what will be bought, in what specification, in what volume and for how long. For most of the last five years, nobody could say.
A real step forward
HHS now publishes a quarterly Covered PPE Forecast under the Make PPE in America Act, giving industry a view of anticipated department-wide demand and inviting industry feedback on what would make it more useful. That is exactly the kind of signal capital needs.
What would make it bankable
- Specifications and volumes by item, not just categories, so a plant can size a line.
- Duration. Multi-year horizons, because equipment is financed over years, not quarters.
- One signal across government. HHS, the VA, the Department of War and DHS buy many of the same items. Aggregated demand is larger and steadier than any one agency’s.
- A path from forecast to order, so that a forecast line can turn into a contract.
The ask
Keep the forecast, deepen it, and extend it across every agency that buys PPE.
Dan Izhaky · October 2026 · All briefs · Next: Rotate the stockpile.