SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Prior to the creation of the DHS, the former US Customs Service was the primary entity for inspecting inbound and outbound foreign cargo at US International airports as well as compliance and control of related bonded facilities.

The events of September 11, 2001 resulted in the creation of DHS as well as the TSA with the consolidation of the Customs Service into CBP. Since 2001 the TSA has grown and expanded in mission... more »

We should be using a minimal auditable secure open source operating system throughout the government. Rather than invent one from scratch, use Linux or some BSD variant. Invest a few of the billions of dollars used to license untrustworthy commercial software to carefully audit the OS and some essential applications.

My idea is to have one security clearance, or background check to cover all, or at least most agencies. For example right now a person can already have a Top-Secret clearance with the Department of Defense, and they would have to start a background investigation all over again if they were to apply with another agency, even if it’s only for a Secret clearance. They would have to fill out the same SF-86, the same eQip... more »

Treat the current debt ceiling as an amount that cannot be exceeded, basically like a debt ceiling.

Please Mr. President, remain vigilant as you were when you voted against raising the debt limit while you were in Congress. Spending less saves money.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services currently issues very expensive Certificates of Citizenship and Certificates of United States Naturalization. They are printed by the Treasury Department's Engraving & Printing and then issued after vetting and a fee of approx. $600 dollars plus is paid to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Converting these certificates into plastic card identifiers would cost... more »

In one hand is my personal smart phone. I love it. I pay for unlimited voice and data with this phone. I can surf freely and without guilt that I'm wasting government money when I do so. It's also faster and more flexible than...what I hold in my other hand, my blackberry. I hate it. I only use it for government business which is largely viewing e-mails when I'm off site. So I carry two of these devices around.... more »

Secure the border by vigorously enforcing current immigration laws and addressing the reasons why people illegally come to the U.S. (jobs and benefits).

CBP is fighting a losing battle to “secure the border” as long as ICE is free to pursue enforcement activities other than immigration and customs enforcement (which happens to be their name).

There should be no reason for ICE to investigate terrorist activities.
Terrorist... more »

Per the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), federal information systems must be hardened according to security configuration standards such as the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC), the U.S. Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB), and the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks.

Government (and contractor) IT shops spend countless hours configuring new and existing systems to ensure... more »

Combine all the federal agencies data under one roof. Build a data powerhouse a state-of-the-art facility that provides secure data processing services to federal agencies. The data powerhouse manages mainframe and server operations, monitors the wide area network and provides key service desk, technical support and disaster recovery services for many of the federal governments mission-critical applications.
The Federal... more »

A large number of federal research positions are located at national labs. National labs have a higher billing rate than most universities. (An example would be a 100 - 200% billing rate at a national lab vs. 50 - 75% at a university.) Locating the researchers at an American university will also allow students better opportunities to work with the agencies they wish to work for after graduation.

Undergraduate and graduate... more »

While some attempts are made to ensure security clearance before an employee starts a new job, more can be done. I am a new employee who has been on the job for a few weeks. Although I accepted the offer several months ago, I am still waiting to get access to a secure computer server used to do essential work. As a result, my productivity in these first several weeks has been substantially limited.

When each government entity has it's own clearance process, there is significant redundant use of resources that could be eliminated by centralizing the process for less sensitive positions (e.g. IT, administrative). For example, over the past few years, I've had to go through 3 clearance processes working for different branches of the government. They all wanted the same information and the work to be performed was... more »

When I deployed to the Middle East, I found large fields of nasty diesel electric generators powering our base (and many, many air conditioners) spewing out God-knows-what while requiring a constant supply of fuel. Fuel delivery costs loads more than stateside, because of security measures. However, the desert has an abundance of both wind and sunlight.
The cost scale most certainly will tip toward the renewables when... more »

When Federal employees transfer to other agencies within the Federal government, why can't their HSPD12 badge be updated to reflect their new agency the day they report to their new job by the security office in their new agency instead of having to send Federal employees to get another set of fingerprints/pictures and other badge/security related information---can't agencies share this type of information and make the... more »

Currently Treasury components such as the Mint, BEP, FinCen, IRS and others have separate enforcement and security functions. It would be better create a Treasury Law Enforcement and Security arm to standardize equipment, training and policy; consolidate patrols; and use economy of scale thinking to reduce costs and achieve better efficiency with implementation of security measures.