Browse Ideas with tag 'abuse':

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  PENTAGON SUPPLY STORE SHOULD GIVE CREDIT FOR UNUSED SUPPLIES.

  I can't tell you how many NEW and UNUSED supplies are thrown in the DUMPSTER during OFFICE MOVES which happen ALL THE TIME around here in the Pentagon. The unopened supplies that I have seen in Dumpsters is terrible and flat out Fraud, Waste and Abuse. Not to mention TONER that can not be returned to the Supply store once it is opened, even if it was the wrong size. And, the way Technology is changing, Government Offices ...more »

  I can't tell you how many NEW and UNUSED supplies are thrown in the DUMPSTER during OFFICE MOVES which happen ALL THE TIME around here in the Pentagon. The unopened supplies that I have seen in Dumpsters is terrible and flat out Fraud, Waste and Abuse. Not to mention TONER that can not be returned to the Supply store once it is opened, even if it was the wrong size. And, the way Technology is changing, Government Offices upgrade Printers all he time, but if you have Bulk Toner and get a new Printer, they go to waste. Yes, I'm sure most try to send out an email within the Pentagon to the Organizations that they associate with to come pick them up if they want them, but they usually get trashed. The main problem is the Supply Stores will not accept the Supplies (even if they are unopened) especially if the items were purchased a few years back and a receipt is not available. For Example: Number/LetterTabs can not go bad. However, if an Organization could RETURN some of these supplies to a Store and get Credit, for even HALF of the actual purchase price, we/the Government could literally save Thousands of dollars! And, although office space is hard to come by at the Pentagon, it would save so much money if there was a Central Location or REPOSITORY where Organizations could take these Extra Supplies when they are purging and cleaning up before a mandatory Move. If this were possible, unused supplies and toner would not be wasted and Organizations that do not have a large supply budget could use this as a resource to pick up much needed supplies without having to pay for them. Again, this will save thousands because Orgs will not need to Request a huge Supply budget if they knew they could utilize this resource. This savings could of course be used to support the warfighter. Finally, the amount of money saved would be more than enough to hire a Veteran or new College Graduate to organize and manage the Repository and also keep Students employed for the Summer or on a Part Time Basis. NOTE: This does not prevent Organizations from continuing to use DRMO fwhen donating BULK items. This will not ONLY benefit the Pentagon, but also other locations (on and off Military Installations) as well. Thanks in advance your kind consideration.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Use Biometrics to Save Money

  Eliminate all kinds of fraud as well as the need for passwords by using biometrics. The government and the private sector should use biometrics to help to eliminate fraud and to make the internet more secure. Small fingerprint readers should be installed at every computer. These readers will be able to verify a persons identity so they can access to their accounts. This will make things much more difficult for identity ...more »

  Eliminate all kinds of fraud as well as the need for passwords by using biometrics. The government and the private sector should use biometrics to help to eliminate fraud and to make the internet more secure. Small fingerprint readers should be installed at every computer. These readers will be able to verify a persons identity so they can access to their accounts. This will make things much more difficult for identity thieves and internet hoodlums and it will also elminate the need for passwords. People could vote from home using these devices which could help to prevent voter fraud. In addition, biometrics could be used to verify a person's eligibility for social services; they could be placed at grocery stores in order to ensure that the person who is using food stamps is actually the person who is supposed to receive the benefits. This would reduce paperwork as well as the need for cards. Biometrics could also be used to ensure that a person is a citizen and eligible to work in this country before they are employed.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Depoliticize the Endangered Species Act

  From the New York Times -- this is appalling. Only science should direct decisions about the Endangered Species Act: Congress, in a First, Removes an Animal From the Endangered Species List Congress for the first time is directly intervening in the Endangered Species List and removing an animal from it, establishing a precedent for political influence over the list that has outraged environmental groups. A rider ...more »

  From the New York Times -- this is appalling. Only science should direct decisions about the Endangered Species Act:

  Congress, in a First, Removes an Animal From the Endangered Species List

  Congress for the first time is directly intervening in the Endangered Species List and removing an animal from it, establishing a precedent for political influence over the list that has outraged environmental groups.

  A rider to the Congressional budget measure agreed to last weekend dictates that wolves in Montana and Idaho be taken off the endangered species list and managed instead by state wildlife agencies, which is in direct opposition to a federal judge’s recent decision forbidding the Interior Department to take such an action.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/us/politics/13wolves.html?_r=1

  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/us/politics/13wolves.html?scp=2&sq=wolf&st=cse

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Reform the jury system.

  The average person is generally unaware of their cognitive biases and logical fallacies and can be easily misled. This in turn causes the lawyers to have to play towards those proclivities, so a trial becomes more about how to convince a jury by taking advantage of said psychological weaknesses than about demonstrating the truth or falsity of the charge. Juror should be a paid profession which requires some education ...more »

  The average person is generally unaware of their cognitive biases and logical fallacies and can be easily misled. This in turn causes the lawyers to have to play towards those proclivities, so a trial becomes more about how to convince a jury by taking advantage of said psychological weaknesses than about demonstrating the truth or falsity of the charge. Juror should be a paid profession which requires some education in law, statistics, and psychology.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Implement Business Practices in Government (good ones anyway)

  The government may not be a business, but that doesn't mean we can't benefit from running it similar to one. For example, managers are people who understand and use MANAGEMENT, not just any random person who happens to make a certain amount of money (like tech people who are promoted to management that don't have the skills or desire to do so). Also we do a very poor job of connecting talented people to jobs that would ...more »

  The government may not be a business, but that doesn't mean we can't benefit from running it similar to one. For example, managers are people who understand and use MANAGEMENT, not just any random person who happens to make a certain amount of money (like tech people who are promoted to management that don't have the skills or desire to do so).

  Also we do a very poor job of connecting talented people to jobs that would fit them well. Younger generation folks join up and then leave in disgust when they find out they hate the work or are never told about advancement or lateral moves they could have made.

  Lastly, we waste so much money on stupidity, error, poor contracting, etc that it's no wonder no one supports additional taxes: everyone knows we have enough money and we just misuse it.

  I think we need a concerted and continuing effort to find inefficiencies, develop solutions, and implement them.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  End All Federal Bonuses for Big Savings $$

  Federal workers don't need, expect, or even deserve, bonuses. Bonus money is spread around like candy and offices are obliged to spend it. The bonuses are not that significant and it will not affect morale if the bonuses aren't there. Believe me. If someone gets "an attitude" over stopping bonuses, that someone would probably be frowned upon, particularly during these fiscal times.

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  Probationairy Employment for Government Workers

  One of the biggest problems we have in the government is that no one can be fired... at least not legally. We should establish a probationairy period of six months, similar to most private sector employees, on all new hires, promotions, and step increases. For six months after being hired to a new position, or recieving an extra pay grade, you can be let go, no questions asked. Far too many govenment employees have ...more »

  One of the biggest problems we have in the government is that no one can be fired... at least not legally. We should establish a probationairy period of six months, similar to most private sector employees, on all new hires, promotions, and step increases. For six months after being hired to a new position, or recieving an extra pay grade, you can be let go, no questions asked. Far too many govenment employees have risen to the level of their incompetence, and are now completely useless, almost jobless, curmudgeons, that we pay insane salaries to, because we can't fire them. If you apply for and are promoted into a position you are not qualified for, you should be fired... If you can't do the job, don't apply for it... It's not rocket surgery.

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  Don't Borrow Federal Retirement Funds

  Do not allow the Treasury Department to borrow money from Federal Retirement Funds. Removing money from any fund in the TSP will result in losses and could potentially have direct impacts on retirement funds. Stating "TSP participants should have nothing to worry about" does not guarantee there will be no impact. Even if they paid back the borrowed amount plus interest, where would we get back our "earnings" for the ...more »

  Do not allow the Treasury Department to borrow money from Federal Retirement Funds. Removing money from any fund in the TSP will result in losses and could potentially have direct impacts on retirement funds. Stating "TSP participants should have nothing to worry about" does not guarantee there will be no impact. Even if they paid back the borrowed amount plus interest, where would we get back our "earnings" for the amount? We would be out that much more money in a so-called "no-risk" account.

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  Let political parties pay for political primary elections.

  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.

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  REWARDING employees for saving money!

  The Federal Government does not provide equitable rewards for innovative thinking. In terms of rewarding people, most reward programs are designed to make the incentive for saving the government money very small. Take for instance of the change that one IRS employee made to make dependents SSNs required on the forms. After not acting on the suggestion as an idea to increase revenue, the department decided to do so ...more »

  The Federal Government does not provide equitable rewards for innovative thinking. In terms of rewarding people, most reward programs are designed to make the incentive for saving the government money very small. Take for instance of the change that one IRS employee made to make dependents SSNs required on the forms. After not acting on the suggestion as an idea to increase revenue, the department decided to do so years later. By the time the reward was given to the suggestor, the US had actually increased revenues by $14 Billion Dollars. However, the suggestor was still given the same paltry reward for his idea, limited by regulation to be no more than $25,000. However, in the world of whistle blowing (Qui Tam lawsuits), the relator can be rewarded a great deal larger sum of money, usually an amount that is about 15% of the total recovery or savings to the government. If that were the case, this suggestor would have been able to make his suggestion and receive over $2 Billion Dollars. That is a real incentive for the most innovative thinkers not only to make the best suggestions; it would also create more suggestions and would ultimately pay for itself in short order. The Federal Government could become very lean and very efficient by incentivizing those employees that are very keen to cut waste, and by attracting the type employees who can do the same in government as industry. By creating one large rewards program that covered the entire federal government instead of just each branch or agency, the oversight provided by each agency seeing the suggestions made by employees/service members across the entire government the backlog/logjam that exists in each suggestion program could be broken. For instance, I currently have several ideas that are in the Army's suggestion program that have been sitting in review for over 2 years. By the time they are decided upon they will either be overcome by events or somehow already initiated into another idea, but that would be late or possibly ineffective. Creating one "super Rewards" program across the Federal Government would reduce or eliminate all that Agency issues that some much plague the way the Federal Government does business. The Government has created so much redundancy and inefficiency the only way to eliminate it removes all the shadows each Agency casts over the wastefulness. One rewards programs with real rewards will incentivize or government to be the efficient buying machine, taxing machine and governing machine, etc., it was meant to be.

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  FREE HOMES. NO MORTGAGES. FREE FOOD FREE MEDICAL INSURANCE

  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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  A Trillion Dollar waste - WELFARE,section8 ,low income housing

  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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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Limit Political Appointees to 3 per Agency

  Political appointees snarf up all the top jobs in our agency, marginalizing career federal employees' contributions and preventing us from advancing in our careers. Limit political appointees to three advisors to the Secretary or Administrator of a department. Let the professional staff do our work.

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  Discipline and Remove Bad Managers

  I can't tell you how many bad federal managers I've had who've skated through multiple grievances (which they lost), "gotcha" management styles, egregious incompetence and rampant employee abuse, and gone on to promotions and bonuses and a long federal career in management. Mandate management discipline, including loss of management position, bonuses and future employability as a manager until they can prove they've ...more »

  I can't tell you how many bad federal managers I've had who've skated through multiple grievances (which they lost), "gotcha" management styles, egregious incompetence and rampant employee abuse, and gone on to promotions and bonuses and a long federal career in management.

  Mandate management discipline, including loss of management position, bonuses and future employability as a manager until they can prove they've corrected all those bad traits. Mandate that every lost grievance be added to their OPF / performance record. Remove bad managers, the number one reason for waste, fraud and abuse in the federal system.

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  Prohibit congress from interfering in acquisitions programs

  Too often the congress, in an effort to bring money to their constituents, feels it has the right to interfere in acquisitions programs run by the executive branch. This is harmful to the integrity of the acquisitions process because an individual who has not been given a contracting officer's warrant, has not been through any amount of training regarding the acquisition process, has no knowledge of the program (other ...more »

  Too often the congress, in an effort to bring money to their constituents, feels it has the right to interfere in acquisitions programs run by the executive branch. This is harmful to the integrity of the acquisitions process because an individual who has not been given a contracting officer's warrant, has not been through any amount of training regarding the acquisition process, has no knowledge of the program (other than how it might affect their re-election efforts), and seems to care little for the total cost of the program feels the need to boost their own ego. Often times the congress demands, directly through law or indirectly by threat, that executive branch acquisitions officials make awards - in flagrant violation of the acquisitions law they themselves approved!

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  Military Publications Ordering - Add Checks & Balances

  Currently, National Guard organizations have almost unlimited access to order (offical government) publications (Equipment Technical Manuals, Training Manuals, Etc) in any quantity and with any frequency desired. This enables waste through duplicate ordering, and ordering publications not relevant to the unit's mission/equipment. Inexperienced publication system users are able to easily create erroneous massive ...more »

  Currently, National Guard organizations have almost unlimited access to order (offical government) publications (Equipment Technical Manuals, Training Manuals, Etc) in any quantity and with any frequency desired.

  This enables waste through duplicate ordering, and ordering publications not relevant to the unit's mission/equipment. Inexperienced publication system users are able to easily create erroneous massive orders which result in boxes upon boxes of irrelevant publications arriving on their doorstep.

  Many of these publications contain restricted information, and proper disposal becomes an additional cost.

  I suggest that the ordering of publications be reviewed and include visibility of order cost, as well as cross-checking publications ordered against equipment records to validate need and quantity.

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  Cut Congressional, Judicial, Executive salaries to 1984 levels

  Cut all of their pay, Congress, White House members, Judges, etc. in half. This would save us 50% of what we taxpayers pay now. http://federaldaily.com/articles/2011/03/11/salary-cut-bill-for-congress.aspx "Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., introduced a bill on March 10 that would cut by 10 percent the annual salaries of the president, vice president and members of Congress. For President Obama, that would be a $40,000 ...more »

  Cut all of their pay, Congress, White House members, Judges, etc. in half. This would save us 50% of what we taxpayers pay now.

  http://federaldaily.com/articles/2011/03/11/salary-cut-bill-for-congress.aspx

  "Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., introduced a bill on March 10 that would cut by 10 percent the annual salaries of the president, vice president and members of Congress. For President Obama, that would be a $40,000 reduction."

  This is a start but I say 50% at least! The average Congress member gets a minimum of $174,000 a year (2011 levels).

  From 1789 to 1815, members of Congress received only a per diem (daily payment) of $6.00 while in session. Members began receiving an annual salary in 1815, when they were paid $1,500 per year.

  In 1989, Congress passed an amendment allowing for the automatic raises, unless lawmakers specifically voted to reject it. Which Congress did, until 2000...

  Since 1990, congressional pay had increased from $98,400 to $154,700 in 2003.

  Also... Presidential pay history:

  September 24, 1789: $25,000 (actual) $566,000 (2009)

  March 3, 1873: $50,000 (actual) $865,000 (2009)

  March 4, 1909: $75,000 (actual) $1,714,000 (2009)

  January 19, 1949: $100,000 (actual) $906,000 (2009)

  January 20, 1969: $200,000 (actual) $1,175,000 (2009)

  January 20, 2001: $400,000 (actual) $487,000 (2009)

  Decrease pay so that it will not be the sole factor to run for office. Notice how the dollar's value has decreased!

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  STOP Nearly 1 in 10 House members paid at least six-figure bonus

  "Nearly 1 in 10 House members paid at least six-figure bonuses to their staffs last year", see the link below. This is a nosebleed that must stop. Take the ability to give these bonuses out of Congressional hands. OMB or some other agency must approve. What this means is that the staffers THEMSELVES are putting in for a bonus. They do all the work. Millions of Americans are out of work, this is shameful waste of tax ...more »

  "Nearly 1 in 10 House members paid at least six-figure bonuses to their staffs last year", see the link below. This is a nosebleed that must stop. Take the ability to give these bonuses out of Congressional hands. OMB or some other agency must approve.

  What this means is that the staffers THEMSELVES are putting in for a bonus. They do all the work.

  Millions of Americans are out of work, this is shameful waste of tax money.

  http://www.legistorm.com/blog/some-members-very-generous-with-staff-bonuses.html

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  Extend the life of the PRINTER – no refreshing in 3 years

  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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  Stop printing T-n-A and other doc-file them online.

  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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  SSI Reform & Representative Payees

  If a Representative Payee has more than one beneficiary (usually parents of multiple disabled children) send one combined payment. Examine Rep Payee accounting forms more critically & require some PROOF of how the money was spent. Terminate SSI payments to families where able-bodied adults refuse to seek gainful employment or participate in vocational programs. Terminate SSI payments to families who use the children's ...more »

  If a Representative Payee has more than one beneficiary (usually parents of multiple disabled children) send one combined payment.

  Examine Rep Payee accounting forms more critically & require some PROOF of how the money was spent.

  Terminate SSI payments to families where able-bodied adults refuse to seek gainful employment or participate in vocational programs.

  Terminate SSI payments to families who use the children's money for the adult's household expenses.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Stop Military Housing Allowance Overpayment

    AGR (Active-Guard-Reserve) employees are military service members that belong to the reserve component, but work full time.     Housing allowance (BAH) is paid, tax-free to these employees every month.  BAH is paid in addition to all othe r pay and allowances.  BAH payout is based on defined geographic areas (work location).     Many employees have actual housing costs that are much less than the payout.  In New York ...more »

    AGR (Active-Guard-Reserve) employees are military service members that

  belong to the reserve component, but work full time.

      Housing allowance (BAH) is paid, tax-free to these employees every

  month.  BAH is paid in addition to all othe r pay and allowances.  BAH payout

  is based on defined geographic areas (work location).

      Many employees have actual housing costs that are much less than the

  payout.  In New York City, employees are paid between an average of $2300 -

  $3200 PER MONTH, tax free, as housing allowance (in addition to basic

  salary).  Many of these employees live in another geographic area (commute to

  work), and pay less 50% of their allowance in costs, but collect the entire

  allowance.  This money is used as income, though it is not taxed.

      I suggest that BAH be paid on a voucher basis, requiring that payout be

  balanced against actual costs (mortgage payment receipts, rent receipts,

  etc).  Adding an additional 3 - 5 employees to monitor this system for each

  state's National Guard AGR force will easily save MILLIONS each year for EACH

  STATE and territory.

      This is not an attack at service-members benefits.  BAH is a housing

  allowance, not income for the employee.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Hold People Accountable

  Create a method of oversight that holds Federal politicians, employees and contractors accountable for their actions or lack thereof. Whether it is filing a lawsuit, choosing not to take on an issue or dodging responsibility, most people in the Federal Government can avoid accountability until they reach their retirement. This current atmosphere of 'avoid-ability' is entirely the fault of the government leadership who ...more »

  Create a method of oversight that holds Federal politicians, employees and contractors accountable for their actions or lack thereof. Whether it is filing a lawsuit, choosing not to take on an issue or dodging responsibility, most people in the Federal Government can avoid accountability until they reach their retirement. This current atmosphere of 'avoid-ability' is entirely the fault of the government leadership who choose to pander to cry babies rather than stand up for the taxpaying citizens of the US.

  This system is unacceptable and any talk of creating a more efficient government needs to start there.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Contractor Conflict of Interest - Limit Revolving Door

  There are supposed to be limits on "retired" Feds going to work for Contractors, with whom they had influence/oversight prior to retiring. However in practice these rules are so narrowly interpreted that we see Feds leaving on a friday and popping back up on a monday with a contractor badge. There seems to be no end to this practice, if they aren't coming back to interface directly with the agency, then they often get ...more »

  There are supposed to be limits on "retired" Feds going to work for Contractors, with whom they had influence/oversight prior to retiring. However in practice these rules are so narrowly interpreted that we see Feds leaving on a friday and popping back up on a monday with a contractor badge. There seems to be no end to this practice, if they aren't coming back to interface directly with the agency, then they often get a VP job as a reward for helping to push their case earlier. This whole area needs to be tightened up, they shouldn't be allowed to go to work for any company that has any contracts with their previous agency. While most federal follow the rules, the practices of these few is costing the government untold millions.

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  1 comment for Idea: Contractor Conflict of Interest - Limit Revolving Door

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Make Supreme Court Justices Attend State of the Union Address

  Our taxes go to the pay of Supreme Court Justices. Our children need to see them in attendance at any State of the Union Address. Each justice must be present. This is Our Government made visible--to the entire nation and to the the world. The arrogance of three or four of the nine not in attendance is something that should not be tolerated. One justice said they were like bumps on a log. Well, that is one person's made-up ...more »

  Our taxes go to the pay of Supreme Court Justices.

  Our children need to see them in attendance at any State of the Union Address. Each justice must be present. This is Our Government made visible--to the entire nation and to the the world.

  The arrogance of three or four of the nine not in attendance is something that should not be tolerated. One justice said they were like bumps on a log. Well, that is one person's made-up perception--change your perception. Remember that someone is in a foxhole, that person would wish to be a bump on a log. If SOTU addresses bore you, you shouldn't have taken the job. Arrogance of the first rank, you were given the job because we thought you could be bi-partisan. Obviously they are not going to police themselves on this issue. The American people must demand it.

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  2 comments for Idea: Make Supreme Court Justices Attend State of the Union Address

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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