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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »Add your comment for Idea: www.ideaforthe.us (New website) Won't go away -
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »Suggest to Congress that they Delegate much more
A modern-day government simply cannot perform well for its people with an anachronistic institution such as the Congress at its heart. Congress needs to learn to delegate A LOT of what it does, not to committees and subcommittees of the Congress but to formal commissions like the BRAC. They need to focus on the big picture, stop including non-germane issues in bills, and dramatically streamline their processes. Invoking ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Suggest to Congress that they Delegate much moreA modern-day government simply cannot perform well for its people with an anachronistic institution such as the Congress at its heart. Congress needs to learn to delegate A LOT of what it does, not to committees and subcommittees of the Congress but to formal commissions like the BRAC. They need to focus on the big picture, stop including non-germane issues in bills, and dramatically streamline their processes. Invoking Cloture needs to be possible with a simple majority vote and filibusters must require actual non-stop debate, with a quorum present. Representatives and Senators should be subject to the same ethics regulations as Executive Branch employees. I know it sounds harsh, but that's what's necessary.
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »Eliminate Speculation in the Oil Commodity Markets
Add your comment for Idea: Eliminate Speculation in the Oil Commodity MarketsAnnounce a policy that the U.S. will purposely seek to frustrate oil speculators by randomly releasing large amounts of oil from the Strategic Reserve, and randomly purchasing additional amounts. This should suppress speculation and thus lower the price of oil.
The resulting reduced oil prices will dramatically improve our export/import balance.
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »Export Controls
Add your comment for Idea: Export ControlsConsider eliminating the Commerce Department's Export Administration Regulations and limit export controls strictly to the State Department's list.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Multi-competency ratings system and tier-based increases
The federal government should reward performance more by altering step increases and moving toward a multi-competency ratings system. Increases in salary would be tier-based. Employees with the highest quintile (top 20 percent) of scores would receive the highest increase. Employees with the lowest quintile of scores would receive no increase in salary. Employees who score in the lowest decile (bottom 10 percent) ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Multi-competency ratings system and tier-based increasesThe federal government should reward performance more by altering step increases and moving toward a multi-competency ratings system. Increases in salary would be tier-based. Employees with the highest quintile (top 20 percent) of scores would receive the highest increase. Employees with the lowest quintile of scores would receive no increase in salary.
Employees who score in the lowest decile (bottom 10 percent) three times in a row would automatically be put into a performance improvement plan. If these employees scored in the lowest decile again, their manager would have the option of asking them to leave the agency. Employees who scored in the lowest decile for the fifth time in a row would be automatically terminated.
The Federal Times recently found that only about 0.06 percent of federal employees are denied a step increase due to performance. Based on data from the Office of Personnel Management, only 737 out of more than 1.2 million General Schedule employees did not receive a regularly scheduled step increase and accompanying raise in 2009 because of poor performance. I have experiences, and spoken to many people who have experiences, working with people who are essentially “dead weight.” I have also heard these people referred to as “retired in place.” Managers are reluctant to give these people “below expectations” ratings because of potential legal issues and enormous documentation requirements. We should require a score-based system that rewards and disciplines based on relative scores.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »End the drug war
The drug war is one of the most wasted efforts in America. We pay billions of dollars to throw non-violent individuals into jails for doing nothing more than exercising their Constitutionally protected freedoms. We have a President who is an admitted user of some of the hardest drugs in America. If that is the limit drug users can reach, is this not proof that we are wasting our time prosecuting these people? Drugs are ...more »
1 comment for Idea: End the drug warThe drug war is one of the most wasted efforts in America. We pay billions of dollars to throw non-violent individuals into jails for doing nothing more than exercising their Constitutionally protected freedoms. We have a President who is an admitted user of some of the hardest drugs in America. If that is the limit drug users can reach, is this not proof that we are wasting our time prosecuting these people?
Drugs are not a criminal problem, they are, in the worst cases, a health issue. We should legalize all drugs in America, and allow the drug companies to sell these drugs over the counter. In return, drug companies must produce and sell all medical prescriptions at cost. This will ensure that drug companies can maintain a profit to stay in business while providing desperately needed medication at a cost even the poorest of us can afford. It will eliminate the billions we pour into funding the DEA, as well as vastly reduce the amount spent on customs and border patrols checking for drugs.
Here is the facts: drugs users do not care about laws. If they can't do it legally, they will do it illegally. The proof is our current society. The United States screwed up. Quite spending good money on a bad idea.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Restructure the OPM pay locality tables to improve pay parity
Restructure the OPM pay locality tables to improve pay parity across Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Pay should be made based on the employer’s MSA instead of Combined Statistical Areas. The pay locality should be determined by comparing the cost of living of both different MSAs in the same region and MSAs in different regions of the country. No base pay of any location should be increased but areas with relatively ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Restructure the OPM pay locality tables to improve pay parityRestructure the OPM pay locality tables to improve pay parity across Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Pay should be made based on the employer’s MSA instead of Combined Statistical Areas. The pay locality should be determined by comparing the cost of living of both different MSAs in the same region and MSAs in different regions of the country. No base pay of any location should be increased but areas with relatively inflated pay localities should be decreased to make them more reflective of the comparative cost of living.
The lack of parity in locality pay has comparatively inflated federal salaries in different regions of the country. For example, a step 1 GS-9 in the Washington DC metro area makes $51,360 while a GS-9 in the Dallas, Texas metro area makes $50,154. However, the cost of living income equivalent for the Dallas MSA is actually $33,708. In this case, the DC metro area rate should remain the same while the Dallas rate is lowered. All new federal employees in the Dallas MSA would be hired at the new rate. Automatic pay increase adjustments for current federal employees would be frozen until their locality GS and Step rate meets the adjusted more-accurate rate. These employees would still be allowed promotions and performance increases.
Please make this change so that we no longer have areas with comparatively inflated federal pay. This is more fair to federal workers working in high-cost MSAs, and it would produce savings for the federal government. These savings could be used to either reduce the federal debt or invest in technology and innovation.
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »Commnwealth? US Territory? Tax Them Allo
I would love to live in a state that is given billions of dollars by the US Government, yet doesn't have to pay a cent in taxes. Give them the choice, they can have representation and be allowed to vote, pay taxes and continue to accept our money; or they can chose to remain a "US Commonwealth" or "US Territory" and not be given a cent by the US Government. I'm not talking about the billions in foreign aid we spend, ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Commnwealth? US Territory? Tax Them AlloI would love to live in a state that is given billions of dollars by the US Government, yet doesn't have to pay a cent in taxes. Give them the choice, they can have representation and be allowed to vote, pay taxes and continue to accept our money; or they can chose to remain a "US Commonwealth" or "US Territory" and not be given a cent by the US Government. I'm not talking about the billions in foreign aid we spend, I'm talking about Puerto Rico, Samoa and the Virgin Islands. Time for them to make the decision as to whether or not they want to be American.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Encourage Gov't Agencies to Save
At the end of each fiscal year, every agency does a mad dash to ensure they have spent all of their funding. If they don't they are told they will lose that amount next year. Why not encourage the agencies to save where possible and let them bank the money for emergencies, new initiatives, upgrades, or new projects instead of always begging the Gov't for additional money. For the next year's budget, the agency will ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Encourage Gov't Agencies to SaveAt the end of each fiscal year, every agency does a mad dash to ensure they have spent all of their funding. If they don't they are told they will lose that amount next year. Why not encourage the agencies to save where possible and let them bank the money for emergencies, new initiatives, upgrades, or new projects instead of always begging the Gov't for additional money. For the next year's budget, the agency will not lose that amount but they must ensure that count that money in as "money on hand." This way, needless spending will end and we can use the extra funds where they deem necessary instead of waiting until the point of breaking.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Stop reorganizing DCMA
3 comments for Idea: Stop reorganizing DCMADCMA is continually reorganizing its agency. Every time a new director was appointed the agency organiztion changed, to include the name; DCMAC, DCMA, DCMAW, DCMA centers, etc., it not only affects the employees trying to keep up with those changes it affects the contractors, who I'm sure inturn some how charge back the Government for the changes that affect their written procedures.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Government Agencies Liaisons with Congress
1 comment for Idea: Government Agencies Liaisons with CongressCongress passes legislation that is beneficial to a target population and is well intended but by the time it comes out of committee and becomes law the adminitrastive and implementation requirements have not been thoroughly addressed. Establish liaison positions that serve various agencies to work during the legislative process to rollout the legislation more efficiently (i.e. automation vs manual)
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Require Drug Testing for all Feds - failures fired!
3 comments for Idea: Require Drug Testing for all Feds - failures fired!They should not be employed as a Fed with illegal habits. The military has random drug tests and all feds should too.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »NEW WEBSITE http://www.IdeaForThe.US
3 comments for Idea: NEW WEBSITE http://www.IdeaForThe.USKeep submitting great ideas!
New website that won't be taken down. Anyone can submit ideas!
Enjoy,
Tony<><
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »International Trade Market Research Unit w/i Commerce Dept
Add your comment for Idea: International Trade Market Research Unit w/i Commerce DeptMany foreign governments place import tariffs or duties on goods that can be supplied domestically. These are avoided when U.S. products are either outside the product limits of foreign country producers or when demand exceeds their domestic supply. Have a market research department perform studies to determine where these conditions are prevalent and work with U.S. suppliers to meet that demand.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »IdeaForThe.us (Website)
Add your comment for Idea: IdeaForThe.us (Website)Since this website will probably go away. I created another one so that "We the people" can keep these great ideas coming.
Feel free to send the link to anyone and not just government employees. I plan on keeping it up indefinitely!
Tony<><
2016
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »Centralized Teleconference Support Center for Fed. Govt! $AVE
It seems like every Agency and Department has their own and I recently saw their budget for one Agency, wow! It is time we have centralized services across the federal government and mandate they be used. One service center, one budget, one contract. It doesn't have to be all of audio visual just the teleconference piece that can be easily managed remotely. Book a line on web or call a call center to schedule. No ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Centralized Teleconference Support Center for Fed. Govt! $AVEIt seems like every Agency and Department has their own and I recently saw their budget for one Agency, wow!
It is time we have centralized services across the federal government and mandate they be used. One service center, one budget, one contract. It doesn't have to be all of audio visual just the teleconference piece that can be easily managed remotely.
Book a line on web or call a call center to schedule. No more using an up to 15 line for a meeting that has 20 participants - better options at less price and lower redundancy!
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »Smokers should Fund their own Smoke Breaks
6 comments for Idea: Smokers should Fund their own Smoke BreaksMany Government employees who smoke take regular smoke breaks while on the clock, often wasting 10 to 15 minutes per work-hour. If an employee wishes to smoke, he/she should be required to take annual leave for the non-work time. The Federal Government should not be paying his/her salary while the employee leaves his duty station to take smoke breaks.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Fred Honer RN
I am an RN in the Health Care section of the Bureau of Prisons at Talladege Alabama. In the Bureau of Prisons between the Central office in Washington and the local health care providers are Regional Offices. In the Bureau of Prisons there are six Regional Offices. For saving money I suggest eliminating the Health Care section of the Regional Offices. The would save not only the salaries and other costs but would save ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Fred Honer RNI am an RN in the Health Care section of the Bureau of Prisons at Talladege Alabama. In the Bureau of Prisons between the Central office in Washington and the local health care providers are Regional Offices. In the Bureau of Prisons there are six Regional Offices. For saving money I suggest eliminating the Health Care section of the Regional Offices. The would save not only the salaries and other costs but would save the cost of the office space.
I do not make this suggestion frivolously nor do I make it without what I believe is sound reasoning. I propose eliminating the health care section of the Regional Offices because they provide at most very little health care. For evidence of this I ask that you look not only at my words but look at THEIR words, THEIR reports, THEIR findings and THEIR actions.
In a recent evaluation of out facility by a Health Care Program Review group their main finding was our dental section's instruments were not counted per policy. It was not that the instruments were not counted it was the way they were counted. By the Program Review group's own findings; not one instrument was lost, not one instrument was unaccounted for, no safety was compromised and no security was compromised. It was just that the documentation was done in the wrong place. Yet for this inspection lasting several days the taxpayers paid five salaries, five travel allowances, five meal allowances and five lodging costs. This is not to say the group did not provide a useful purpose or was not correct but is it worth the cost to the taxpayer?
In a recent evaluation by the Regional Pharmacist her main finding was the inmate/patient's medicine cups were being filled too early. To explain; certain of the medicines prescribed for inmates cannot be given to them in packages for them to take to their housing units. These medications are dispensed in a "pill line." Each of the patients has an assigned medicine drawer where his medicine(s) are stored in bottles. At each of the pill lines a dose of the medicines are taken from the bottle(s) in the patients drawer, placed in a small paper medicine cup and handed to the patient. What the Regional Pharmacist found was the paper cups were being filled more than the, per policy, one hour prior to dispensing. In this case I was was the one found to be filling the medicine cups too early, sometimes as much as three hours prior to dispensing. I placed the medicines in a cup the placed an empty cup over the the filled one and placed the cups back in the patient's drawer. The efficacy of medications are affected by light, temperature and air. Every pharmacist I spoke with said the medications in covered cups in a drawer would have a change in efficacy but it would take at least many hundreds of hours. Here the Regional Pharmacist, while absolutely correct by policy, was paid by the taxpayers to make an observation about medication dispensation when the change in efficacy, if it exists, is not measurable by any test known to man. I filled the medicine cups early because by doing it that way made staff time far more efficient, a fact that no one disputes.
The second finding of the Regional was where newly prescribed medications are documented. She correctly pointed out where the documentation of some newly prescribed medications are documented in the wrong place. There was no finding that patients did not receive their medication or did not receive their medication on time or that the documentation was not done, only that it was documented in one place instead of another. While the Regional Pharmacist was correct, per policy, in all her findings, are the salary and travel costs of someone to find that medication cups being filled three hours in advance instead of one hour in advance and medications documented in one place instead of another a necessary expence?
Our Regional Medical Director is located in a office in Atlanta. She confers with the local medical directors, the one who actually see the patients. She confers via closed circuit. From what I have seen she functions primarily to order delays in the treatments ordered by the doctors who see the patients. Many of the local doctor recommended treatments are done but done later. I suggest you look at the records of HER findings, HER recommendations and HER orders to see if her position warrants the expence of her salary, her costs and her ofice space.
Similar is the case of the Regional Health Care staff. Look at THEIR findings, THEIR actions, THEIR recommendations and THEIR orders and see how much health care the Regional Health Care staff actually provides.
From what I have been able to determine a significant cost to the BOP, paid by the taxpayers, are successful health care related lawsuits and settlements paid to inmates. I have been told that in these successful lawsuits and settlements the most frequent cause is not non-treatment or incorrect treatment but a delay in treatment. It appears that the tax payers are paying lawsuits and settlements due to overloaded providers; doctors, physician's assistants, nurse practitioners and registered nurses; while we have a Health Care group, the Regionals, who provide almost no direct health care.
A group I mentioned above, the Health Care Program Review group, who goes from one facility to another, while not full time, consumes salaries, travel expences, meal allowances and lodging allowances; while providing no health care. This group only inspects local health care facilities. The local health care facilities are also regularly inspected by two independent outside agencies. The American Correction Association (ACA) and the Joint Commission of Health Care Orginazations (JACHO). Hospitals from level three and four triage centers up to level one trauma centers are inspected by only one agency. What we are suggests inspection by the ACA and JACHO are in order but in this time of tight money do we really need to pay for a third inspection agency, the BOP's health care Program Review?
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »going back to soldiers
3 comments for Idea: going back to soldiersreplace civilian security, transportation, admin, etc with soldiers. Too often, the gov't pays civilians more in "actual" wages (ie overtime and lost efficiency) with far less performance than if they had utilized soldiers
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Voluntary furloughs for those who can afford it
2 comments for Idea: Voluntary furloughs for those who can afford itAllow those who can afford (and actually want) 3 days off to take a voluntary furlough. Clearly those who live paycheck to paycheck won't want to. But I've been hearing from more and more people who wouldn't mind a few days off without pay in order to take care of medical appointments, errands, etc. - as well as to help the government save money.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Secure local commuting "Hubs"
Add your comment for Idea: Secure local commuting "Hubs"Create a network of secure network, energy independent, stand alone "Hubs" as alternatives to telecommuting from home. Locate them in scattered locations around major federal commuting areas (i.e. around MD and NOVA) Showcase microgrid energy, creative green building, family friendly alternative work locations. Costs shared interagency.
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This idea is active.Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »End Public Transit Subsidy
3 comments for Idea: End Public Transit SubsidyEnd the monthly public transit subsidy for federal employees. Federal workers should pay their own communting costs in getting to and from work whether they elect to use public or private transportation.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Goverment sponsered open source operating systems and apps
Save the annual license costs incurred for using operating systems, business productivity applications, and other common infrastructure systems, by federally sponsering, contributing, coordinating, supporting, and standardizing on an open source operating system, open source business productivity software, and other standard IT applications. Similar to foreign governments creating their versions of operating systems. ...more »
2 comments for Idea: Goverment sponsered open source operating systems and appsSave the annual license costs incurred for using operating systems, business productivity applications, and other common infrastructure systems, by federally sponsering, contributing, coordinating, supporting, and standardizing on an open source operating system, open source business productivity software, and other standard IT applications. Similar to foreign governments creating their versions of operating systems. By providing and distributing a standard open source image it could save the costs incurred at branch offices to create, distribute, standardize, and secure local workstations and servers. It would provide more incentive for application developers companies to develop to an open source operating system.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »No data storage on portable hardware (e.g., laptops)
1 comment for Idea: No data storage on portable hardware (e.g., laptops)Provide cloud-computing secured data storage that is accessible via portable hardware (e.g., laptops, notepads) with no resident data on the portable hardware. If the hardware is lost or stolen, it will have no data that is could be stolen. Every day many laptops go missing and the data goes missing along with the laptop. This is a very unsecure way of conducting business.
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This idea is active.Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »Cross Utilization of Meeting Facilities
All federal agencies have meeting rooms. Sometimes one organization has a need of more meeting rooms than are available in their own building/facility on a given day. Sometimes organizations are specifically directed to have an off-site meeting as a "retreat" away from their regular worksite to ensure full engagement in a particular activity. I work in downtown Washington DC. Everytime we need to have an off-site ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Cross Utilization of Meeting FacilitiesAll federal agencies have meeting rooms. Sometimes one organization has a need of more meeting rooms than are available in their own building/facility on a given day. Sometimes organizations are specifically directed to have an off-site meeting as a "retreat" away from their regular worksite to ensure full engagement in a particular activity. I work in downtown Washington DC. Everytime we need to have an off-site retreat we go through elaborate measures to find a suitable meeting location. Sometimes we meet 20 miles away at another facility within our own agency, and sometimes we rent a meeting room at a local hotel. I don't believe we have EVER just gone five blocks up the street to borrow a conference room from another federal agency. Why not???? We are SURROUNDED by other federal agencies with plenty of meeting rooms. All we need is a meeting room to seat 30 people, bathrooms nearby, and someplace to buy drinks and snacks. Why are we not just borrowing conference rooms from other agencies when we need extra meetiing rooms or off-site meeting rooms? I believe that there should be a method for coordinating use of meeting rooms between the different federal buildings. This is ESPECIALLY true in DC where there are so many of them near eachother, but would also be applicable nationwide. My own building has a centralized on-line booking system to reserve conference rooms, but only people who work in my building can access the system. I assume the situation is similar at other agencies/buildings. At a minimum, we could arrange a single person as a point of contact to book rooms on behalf of other federal agencies. Perhaps the training office in each federal building could do this. Most of the "off-sites" are training activities. Most of us have sufficient security clearances/background checks to grant us access to most other federal buildings.
The benefits are: 1--We don't pay to rent hotel meeting rooms. 2--We don't waste valuable employee time travelling excessive distances to meeting locations when closer options exist. 3--Training office staff don't spend excessive amounts of time trying to identify a suitable location. 4--We have extra meeting space available nearby when our own facilities are overbooked and empty rooms get used. This reduces the need to build/rent more space.
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