SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

I am presently reimbursed at 51 cents per mile to use of my privately owned automobile and would like to instead sometimes be reimbursed at 10 cents per mile to use my privately owned bicycle. Add bicycles to the list of reimbursable mileage rates or otherwise fund its use. My bike, tires, maintenance, and riding gear have costs, yet i reduce the higher societal costs of fuel demand, traffic control, pollution, road maintenance,... more »

Recognize that POV travel is less expensive than GOV travel, and reimburse appropriately. A new AAA study shows the cost to own and operate a sedan rose nearly 2 cents a mile to 58.5 cents per mile. As a high-mileage driver the government had been reimbursing me (to use my POV for government business) 19 cents per mile, which is down from the 28.5 cents per mile that was reimbursed in prior years (while actual costs have... more »

I recently went to a training session at a cost of several thousand dollars per person, and the training was still in the development stages. I believe huge efficiencies and savings (both personal and monetarily) could have been realized if the quick reference guide, or DVD, or another method was simply sent to me with no personal travel involved. In this solitary case, millions of dollars could have been saved.

My position requires an average of 70 to 80 hours of work per week. The government recoups considerably more than the cost of paying my overtime by charging private industries an hourly rate for my essential services, and therefore there is no incentive for the government to be concerned about my life/work balance, safety and health, or inefficiencies of work due to excessively long hours. Allowing early retirement... more »

Honorable Vice-President and President. While the winners do get a personal audience with the President, which is a great honor; I propose: Since we have lost our cost of living raise, had our Step increases delayed for years, had our medical and other incentives we pay increased, that if we WIN this award, please provide a Cash Incentive, rather than a meeting with the President. Save the plane, hotel, and other amenities,... more »

Instead of punishing Agencies for giving back money at the end of the budget year, reward them. Currently, there is no incentive for an Agency to give money back at the end of the year. Every year there is a mass spending (a lot of times on items that are not currently needed) just so we don't give money back. This is done because currently if you do give money back then the next year's budget is almost always cut... more »

Allow employees to take a day off without pay. This will save the Gov't Millions. Those who can afford it, can save their Annual Leave and take a single day off per pay period without pay. Pretty simple request in VistA, and can easily be approved by immediate supervisor.

All branches of the military have different uniforms that are worn on a day to day basis for example ABU and ACU. My idea for saving money would be to adopt one uniform for all branches of the military. The only distinction would be the name tape on the uniform, i..e blue for Air Force, black for Army.
I beleive this would help cut spending for the military by cutting coastly contracts with different vendors for different... more »

2009 Dairy subsidies were $1,147,695,434

1998 they were $9,285,369

They don't need to be so high.

It costs taxpayers millions of dollars and directly contributes to the vast national debt and corruption of all political figures to allow them to vote for their own pay raises and to receive retirement after serving only two to four years in any office under the privilage as being a representative of the people along with having exclusive health care not afforded to any other citizen. Full retirement benefits should... more »

Staff vehicles and aircraft are a huge waste of money for a Colonel up to four star General to have his own transportation at the cost to the tax payer. 1 staff vehicle (currently a Ford Fusion Hybrid) per O-6 and higher in the military has a base price of $28,600 per vehicle. Just on our base alone there are 7 of these vehicles, costing a total of $200,200.00, take that times approximately 81 AF Bases equals $16.2M.... more »

Close all offices except essential personnel the day after Thanksgiving. Many people use this day and its a waste to operate with lights, energy, guards, etc... for a few people.

I suggest that we do NOT give any more money and/or supplies and/or help to any other country until we pay off our National Debt. Common Sense says that we need to take care of our own first! If you work for the government you must take care of any just debt. That should go for us as a country as well.
Let other countries step up and help more, we been doing it for too long. We need to worry about #1 and we are #1... more »

The U.S. gives aid to almost every country in the world in one way or another. If a foreign citizen uses U.S. services without paying -- hospitalization and medical care at the top of the list -- hospitals etc. should send the bill to the State Dept which would bill the appropriate country. If the bill is not paid within 30 days it is withheld from their foreign / military aid and the State Dept should repay the hospital/institution... more »

The US is willing to spend our hard earned tax dollars helping other countries that don't even want to help themselves. It's time to stop paying foreign aid and save that money until we can turn our debt around. Once we get our debt under control we can revisit the idea of wasting our money on other countries.