5 votes
I'd appreciate everyone’s review and vote if you agree at the below link as it affects all that have submitted ideas. Don’t let the ideas get dumped, please review below and no vote needed here, just at the below link if you agree as it is needed.
http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Utilize-the-Site/120215-13060
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6 votes
Suggest selecting few locations at great vacation areas for non-emergency surgeries like knee replacement, back surgeries and others. Send patient to those sites for selected procedures with travel expenses and their spouses can tag along. It would be easier to hire qualified professionals at these vacation areas and patients would be happy to go for small vacation also. This would significantly decrease Fee Basis money ...more »
Suggest selecting few locations at great vacation areas for non-emergency surgeries like knee replacement, back surgeries and others. Send patient to those sites for selected procedures with travel expenses and their spouses can tag along. It would be easier to hire qualified professionals at these vacation areas and patients would be happy to go for small vacation also. This would significantly decrease Fee Basis money and improve patient satisfaction.
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6 votes
1 step, let’s look into each countries foreign policy towards the US.
2 step, Let’s equal or maintain our foreign policy towards those countries.
If it is negative towards USA we equal it to be as negative to those countries.
If it is positive we maintain.
This will save us billions of dollars we give away to countries that do not favor USA or will stab us in the back at first chance.
11 votes
Suggest that all supervisors work as front line staff for one week every quarter - total 4 weeks a month. This would provide supervisor with recent experience of front line staff work environment and can relate to staff better. This would also save four weeks worth of salary (save money).
44 votes
The prison systems appear to be full of able-bodied individuals with a lot of new found time on their hands. Turn this workforce into farmers for internal food production and consumption. Reduce electricity consumption with onsite energy production (more secure sky lighting, no TV, night time complete darkness with battery backed up IR for security, extensive solar panel network, treadmills hooked to generators ect..). ...more »
The prison systems appear to be full of able-bodied individuals with a lot of new found time on their hands. Turn this workforce into farmers for internal food production and consumption. Reduce electricity consumption with onsite energy production (more secure sky lighting, no TV, night time complete darkness with battery backed up IR for security, extensive solar panel network, treadmills hooked to generators ect..). Reduce water consumption with timed showers and utilize local wells or infrastructure collecting rain water. Reserve waste removal and laundry for the underachievers and unmotivated. Offer and impairment “arts and craft”/”essential manufacturing” time to create products for resale to cover any additional costs (guards salaries, medical treatment, education, and rehabilitation supplies, ect…) It’s just that simple and will save piles of cash and wasted resources in the long run.
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84 votes
Enact a flat tax rate for everyone, no matter their income.
11 votes
It is vital for the government to start adopting the energy efficiency programs already proved successful by major companies around the world. The government could save millions of dollars a year by simply making it mandatory for government facilities to have intelligent power strips. There are intelligent power strips that are designed for many different types of usage. From the average office work space to a giant server ...more »
It is vital for the government to start adopting the energy efficiency programs already proved successful by major companies around the world. The government could save millions of dollars a year by simply making it mandatory for government facilities to have intelligent power strips. There are intelligent power strips that are designed for many different types of usage. From the average office work space to a giant server room using 100 times the amount of energy of a typical office building, there is an intelligent power strip the government could use to save money.
The government would need to make a large investment to ensure the technology and policies are put in place, but the intelligent power strips would pay for themselves within the first year. The government cannot afford to ignore the methods already being used by Fortune 500 companies. Intelligent power strips can provide the government with a fail-safe way to save money and promote green technologies. The mandatory usage of intelligent power strips is a tangible, measurable, and realistic idea that will surely save government dollars.
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9 votes
Agencies have to follow Policy/guidelines when selecting where Government office space will be leased. This resulted in a move to one of the most expensive places in town and also now requires employees to pay for parking. Government needs to reconsider any Policy/guideline that requires leasing premium office space. Suitable and safe alternatives are available for much less money with no parking fees.
7 votes
Place a ten thousand dollar bounty on ideas implemented through this system, that save the government one million dollars or more.
47 votes
The entire federal government budgeting system is broken. Budgets are meant to be completely expended so that future budgets are not cut. This causes a flood of activity at the end of the fiscal year where money is wasted on anything and everything that it can be spent on. War time appropriations are even worse. If federal agencies were rewarded for coming in under budget rather than penalized for not completely expending ...more »
The entire federal government budgeting system is broken. Budgets are meant to be completely expended so that future budgets are not cut. This causes a flood of activity at the end of the fiscal year where money is wasted on anything and everything that it can be spent on. War time appropriations are even worse.
If federal agencies were rewarded for coming in under budget rather than penalized for not completely expending their budget, we'd find many agencies could truly live off of far less. Also if the senior management were personally rewarded (as in the private sector) via bonus options, the incentive would be to attract performing individuals with a sense for managing money to leadership positions rather than the current "this is how we've always done it" staff that we have now.
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7 votes
http://www.ecofont.com/en/products/green/font/download-the-ink-saving-font.html This free, widely-used, enhancement to the fonts you already use, saves 28.1% in toner, by printing letters in a swiss-cheese manner, saving on the holes. The holes are invisible to the reader at 10-14 size fonts. The coverage of a printed document can be analyzed with software (Apfill). Print a page, for example with Arial and then print ...more »
http://www.ecofont.com/en/products/green/font/download-the-ink-saving-font.html
This free, widely-used, enhancement to the fonts you already use, saves 28.1% in toner, by printing letters in a swiss-cheese manner, saving on the holes. The holes are invisible to the reader at 10-14 size fonts. The coverage of a printed document can be analyzed with software (Apfill). Print a page, for example with Arial and then print the same text with Ecofont Arial. Scan both documents at a high resolution (minimum of 300dpi) and analyze the coverage of both documents for savings evidence. The test result is a toner saving of 28.1% (tested for Arial and Ecofont Arial 12pts).
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14 votes
One Day Off or Furlough for one day starting from the top down to military and civilians. This idea would save the Government and the U.S.A. Nation funds on a yearly basis. The idea is spreading the furlough to all Government and Military but NOT at the SAME TIME. For God sake what is this government Idea on FURLOUGH EVERY ONE AT THE SAME TIME. I am putting this on bullets for simplicity, so the idea can be escalated ...more »
One Day Off or Furlough for one day starting from the top down to military and civilians.
This idea would save the Government and the U.S.A. Nation funds on a yearly basis. The idea is spreading the furlough to all Government and Military but NOT at the SAME TIME. For God sake what is this government Idea on FURLOUGH EVERY ONE AT THE SAME TIME. I am putting this on bullets for simplicity, so the idea can be escalated accordingly and steps can be added or removed.
1- Spread the furlough to Government employees and military to only one DAY (a day off without pay) but distributing the load to different employees at different time frame (not all at the same time.)
2- Starting from the President down to the Vice-President, Congressman, Senate everybody would received a day off without pay.
3- On the other hand, the same for all Military branches, starting from the top down, one day off without pay for generals, commanders, officers, and enlisted. Everyone will take it but not at the same time.
4- PAY Roll has to be set up to accommodate for this day off ensuring the day is not pay accordingly to the proposal. And not like few years ago when EVERYONE was off and EVERYONE still received payment for the days off. A nice free vacation with payment included.
5- We all need to remember, even if the president does not receive pay for one day, he is still the president with decision to make on HIS DAY OFF. And same thing with every military commander, pretty much they all giving a day off without pay but their executive officer or next in the change of command will be incharged.
6- There is always a backup plan when 25 or 50% of an outfit organization is off duty, the other 50% takes over and performs the function of the office. As the norm when a supervisor is off the next level supervisor takes charge until current supervisor comes back.
7- Do this for one year, equally shared to all branches of the government and military. Analyze the cost saving and if it works and does not hurt anyone, make it a proposal and mandate to future years.
8- This also can be implemented to States Government hierarchy.
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33 votes
Why do the taxpayers have to pay for POLITICAL primaries? We should not have to pay for anything political. I have no problem paying for an election but put everyone on the ballot. If a party wants to narrow the field let them pay for it.
14 votes
Adopting the S1000D international standard for technical publications would allow the entire government to be able to share information more easily. The information, once put into a common source database, would be able to be used by whomever needed it. And once it is placed there, the need for reentering the data is not needed, threrby decreasing the costs of rewriting and reediting the work. Most major companies ...more »
Adopting the S1000D international standard for technical publications would allow the entire government to be able to share information more easily. The information, once put into a common source database, would be able to be used by whomever needed it. And once it is placed there, the need for reentering the data is not needed, threrby decreasing the costs of rewriting and reediting the work. Most major companies have begun to adopt the standard.
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10 votes
Transparency is a powerful cost saving tool. The Combined Federal Campaign started publishing the percentage of contributions that charities used for administrative and overhead costs after a financial scandal at United Way threatened the integrity of the campaign. It set a bar of 25%. Contributors began making more informed decisions and charities reduced their overhead costs over time to get below the bar. We could ...more »
Transparency is a powerful cost saving tool. The Combined Federal Campaign started publishing the percentage of contributions that charities used for administrative and overhead costs after a financial scandal at United Way threatened the integrity of the campaign. It set a bar of 25%. Contributors began making more informed decisions and charities reduced their overhead costs over time to get below the bar.
We could take the same approach to reduce health insurance costs. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies will be required to spend 80 to 85 percent of premium dollars on medical care and health care quality improvement, rather than on administrative costs, starting in 2011. If they don’t, the insurance companies will be required to provide a rebate to their customers starting in 2012. What if OPM published the % of administrative and profit for each provider in the FEHBP at open season. We would begin to assess the value of our insurance differently and make different decisions. Companies would have to reduce costs to be competitive.
We could require doctors to do the same. That would push them to reduce costs and embrace cost saving electronic billing options and record- keeping.
My electricity provider enables customers to compare what they pay per month to what other customers in comparable (e.g., size of home) areas pay. It has found that customers change their usage because they have a measure of what is achievable in cost reduction.
Contracts are another area where transparency could affect costs. We need to push companies to be more efficient and reduce administrative and overhead costs on government contracts and especially on sub-contractor costs. The costs for specialized and high-end technical expertise are very high and so is the overhead. How much are we paying for healthcare and other benefits, how much are we paying for facilities and other overhead costs like clearance processes and compliance.
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24 votes
The use of travel arrangement systems in the government is absolutely ridiculous! DTS in DOD, FedTraveler in Homeland Security- even if you can't book your travel through them (Fedtraveler doesn't even include all hotels under contract with the govt) the govt is charged for FedTraveler to "prepare" a travel authorization- which is actually prepared by the employee, and approved by his/her supervisor!! WASTE!!!
11 votes
Why are facilities staff throwing away rolls of toilet paper and paper towels that are not empty?
Why do they take a trash bag with one piece of paper or a candy wrapper and throw it out! This should be common sense...if there is something that will stink or attract pests, ok- take the bag out- but one piece of paper and you can just dump the paper out and leave the bag...
25 votes
section 8 and low income housing encourages dependency and complacent behavior. Why work when you can get a house for practically free and keep collecting entitlements. ILLLEGAL squatting and unauthrized people live with a legal tenet often and this is a criminal offense since changes in family size and income are required to be reported. the section 8 system and low income housing system is a complete failure which has ...more »
section 8 and low income housing encourages dependency and complacent behavior. Why work when you can get a house for practically free and keep collecting entitlements. ILLLEGAL squatting and unauthrized people live with a legal tenet often and this is a criminal offense since changes in family size and income are required to be reported. the section 8 system and low income housing system is a complete failure which has drained the US economy of trillions of dollars and maintained tenets in social and financial bondage. there is no incentive to leave section 8 or low income housing. why work or attend college when you can get housing for free or low cost. This encouranges drug abuse and out of wedlock births and tenet abuse by housing squatters and unauthorized people living in the units. section 8 and low income housing also reduce local taxpayers home values and create blighted neighborhoods with loud music and cars with dark windows and dirty messy yards often with dirt as a yard.. SECTION 8 and LOW INCOME HOUSING TENETS NEED TIME LIMITS of 1 to 3 years then they must be evicted from the units since they are living on free enititlements and have no incentive to Raise themselves out of the free benefits. WAKE UP AMERICA! WE ARE TRILLIONS IN DEBT and giving away FREE BENEFITS . remember that all secion 8 and low income housing authoritys are TAX FREE and you pay the costs of educating the people and their rents are susidized and food and insurance are subsidized and paid for. its like the midlle and upper class is paying triple to live, we all have to pay for everyone else.. its not fair..http://www.hud.gov/complaints/fraud_waste.cfm
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38 votes
http://www.hud.gov/complaints/fraud_waste.cfm -section 8 and low income housing encourages dependency and complacent behavior. Why work when you can get a house for practically free and keep collecting entitlements. ILLLEGAL squatting and unauthrized people live with a legal tenet often and this is a criminal offense since changes in family size and income are required to be reported. the section 8 system and low income ...more »
http://www.hud.gov/complaints/fraud_waste.cfm -section 8 and low income housing encourages dependency and complacent behavior. Why work when you can get a house for practically free and keep collecting entitlements. ILLLEGAL squatting and unauthrized people live with a legal tenet often and this is a criminal offense since changes in family size and income are required to be reported. the section 8 system and low income housing system is a complete failure which has drained the US economy of trillions of dollars and maintained tenets in social and financial bondage. there is no incentive to leave section 8 or low income housing. why work or attend college when you can get housing for free or low cost. This encouranges drug abuse and out of wedlock births and tenet abuse by housing squatters and unauthorized people living in the units. section 8 and low income housing also reduce local taxpayers home values and create blighted neighborhoods with loud music and cars with dark windows and dirty messy yards often with dirt as a yard.. SECTION 8 and LOW INCOME HOUSING TENETS NEED TIME LIMITS of 1 to 3 years then they must be evicted from the units since they are living on free enititlements and have no incentive to Raise themselves out of the free benefits. WAKE UP AMERICA! WE ARE TRILLIONS IN DEBT and giving away FREE BENEFITS . remember that all secion 8 and low income housing authoritys are TAX FREE and you pay the costs of educating the people and their rents are susidized and food and insurance are subsidized and paid for. its like the midlle and upper class is paying triple to live, we all have to pay for everyone else.. its not fair..http://www.hud.gov/complaints/fraud_waste.cfm
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11 votes
The main efficiency problem of the federal government is detachment, or the not-my-job mindset. If you really want to see a fast, efficient federal work force, get everyone in the department to start communicating and working together on everything regardless of title or seniority. In every department there is someone slacking off and someone over tasked, and those roles may change over time due to the chunkiness of our ...more »
The main efficiency problem of the federal government is detachment, or the not-my-job mindset. If you really want to see a fast, efficient federal work force, get everyone in the department to start communicating and working together on everything regardless of title or seniority. In every department there is someone slacking off and someone over tasked, and those roles may change over time due to the chunkiness of our work (that is to say the workload is intermittent and an individual's workload varies from day to day or week to week). This chunkiness is an inherent feature of qualitative work, and overcoming the problem requires providing an incentive to finish all projects, regardless of size and scope, as efficiently and quickly as possible.
My recommendation to achieve this without massive processes or oversight is to motivate and empower the employees to do it themselves. For example, you could give the option to all branches, departments, groups, etc, to work a 7 hour day instead of an 8 hour day with full pay. Then you make a couple of additional rules:
1. You must be able to show everyone in your group how your work could be finished in a 7 hour day. Meaning they know what you are doing and could do it themselves if need be.
2. Nobody leaves unless everyone in the group can leave, including supervisors. This means those that have nothing to do at the moment have to help others in order to leave early and nobody can hold on to task, working on one project too long to keep themselves busy or rake in the over time.
My point is this, trying to create some universal rule or process is not going to solve our efficiency problems. You have employed 2.15 million people, these people are smart enough to assess their situation and make improvements that work for their specific situation. However we are hindered by coworkers who don’t care, are too busy, or tried it before and gave up. We need some kind of unifying goal that is going to make us work as a team. If you were to implement this change I think you would see a radical improvement in the productivity, efficiency and work culture of the Government/DoD.
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15 votes
I like most ideas on this website. I think that most ideas have come from somebody who is trying to do a great job at what they do. It has become so difficult to navigate through that, I have decided to take 15 minutes out of my day to dedicate to this at home on my own time. I believe that the top 25 contributors and top 25 idea submitters should be invited to bring their heads together and discuss what is really ...more »
I like most ideas on this website. I think that most ideas have come from somebody who is trying to do a great job at what they do.
It has become so difficult to navigate through that, I have decided to take 15 minutes out of my day to dedicate to this at home on my own time.
I believe that the top 25 contributors and top 25 idea submitters should be invited to bring their heads together and discuss what is really important to their agency and to the federal government as a whole.
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12 votes
Extend the life of the PRINTER – no refreshing in 3 years is needed. The life spam on printers is actually measured by the amount of printouts the printer do in its life, and not because the printer is 3 years old and it needs to be replaced. YOU CAN ENVEN doubled this timeframe, and save cost for the office, the government and the tax payers. For example high-end and network printers has a life spam of 500,000 printouts, ...more »
Extend the life of the PRINTER – no refreshing in 3 years is needed.
The life spam on printers is actually measured by the amount of printouts the printer do in its life, and not because the printer is 3 years old and it needs to be replaced. YOU CAN ENVEN doubled this timeframe, and save cost for the office, the government and the tax payers.
For example high-end and network printers has a life spam of 500,000 printouts, this is approximately 100,000 per year for a total of 5 years. This is assuming the offices print 8350 pages per months. The printer even could last longer that the specified life spam stated by the manufacture. Parts can be replaced, and if the cost of repair exceed 40% of the cost of the printer, then it would not be economical to repair.
On another note, on today’s economy saving there is no need to print as mush as in the way we used to 5 or 10 years ago.
Save energy, do less waste, go paperless and save tax payers money
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24 votes
Instead of printing any Time and Attendance (TnA) document, some time even 3 sheets time 3 or 4 times (for distribution), adding any SF71 to it.... Do them electronically, store them and process them online. Some organization has and can process them via the mainframe financial institution or online secure services. There is no need to print them out, they all can be processed, verified and certified ELECTRONICALLY; ...more »
Instead of printing any Time and Attendance (TnA) document, some time even 3 sheets time 3 or 4 times (for distribution), adding any SF71 to it.... Do them electronically, store them and process them online.
Some organization has and can process them via the mainframe financial institution or online secure services.
There is no need to print them out, they all can be processed, verified and certified ELECTRONICALLY; here is the amount an employee can print every 2 weeks:
1- One copy for the employee,
2- Make another copy for the supervisor
3- And then another for the Admin or budget person to verify the entries.
4- If there is one error the cycle starts again, and you end up 2 or 3 time the initial amout printed originally.
ONE PERSON could generate 12 sheets or more just for each pay period (this assuming there is no mistake and the forms need to be printed again).... you can do the numbers, if you have 1000's employees.
Save more,,,,do less waste... Lets go paperless….
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63 votes
A solution to save on fuel costs would be for Institutions to use push mowers instead of gasoline operated mowers. Not only does the government save money for fuel and maintenancer, but inmates are afforded health benefits by pushing the mowers, maintaining their physical fitness. Additionally, the environmental impact is aided in less carbon emisions. The cost of a gas powered mower is around 3 to 4 times what a manual ...more »
A solution to save on fuel costs would be for Institutions to use push mowers instead of gasoline operated mowers. Not only does the government save money for fuel and maintenancer, but inmates are afforded health benefits by pushing the mowers, maintaining their physical fitness. Additionally, the environmental impact is aided in less carbon emisions. The cost of a gas powered mower is around 3 to 4 times what a manual push mower would cost. Also, the maintenance for a manual push mower is 10% of maintaining a gas powered mower.
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21 votes
A solution to save on fuel costs would be for Institutions to use push mowers instead of gasoline operated mowers. Not only does the government save money for fuel and maintenancer, but inmates are afforded health benefits by pushing the mowers, maintaining their physical fitness. Additionally, the environmental impact is aided in less carbon emisions.
