83 votes
This old dinosaur of an agency has outlived its usefullness. It provides terrible customer service and they charge a large fee. Let them compete with the private sector. When we were allowed to get our own leases, we could do so quickly and usually cheaper than having GSA get in the way.
8 votes
The DOT/FAA recently held a conference in Orlando, Florida. Everyone had a great time, a week away from any real work, but you had to wonder why there were so many FAA workers there (gov & contractor)? What is the number of Feds in the FAA 50,000? How many Feds and contractors supporting IT, seems like probably at least twice that. About time to consolidate IT services at the FAA, and put more controllers in the towers. ...more »
The DOT/FAA recently held a conference in Orlando, Florida. Everyone had a great time, a week away from any real work, but you had to wonder why there were so many FAA workers there (gov & contractor)? What is the number of Feds in the FAA 50,000? How many Feds and contractors supporting IT, seems like probably at least twice that. About time to consolidate IT services at the FAA, and put more controllers in the towers.
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21 votes
However Congress members think they are saving the taxpayers money by bedding down in the office, is beyond the pale. Make Congress members pay for their overnight accomodations on principal. Would be easy to implement, machine count their badges if they are leaving for the night. Collecting revenues wherever we can, for one thing, but also--wouldn't it be nice if we can convince them that they are not royalty? Treasury ...more »
However Congress members think they are saving the taxpayers money by bedding down in the office, is beyond the pale. Make Congress members pay for their overnight accomodations on principal. Would be easy to implement, machine count their badges if they are leaving for the night. Collecting revenues wherever we can, for one thing, but also--wouldn't it be nice if we can convince them that they are not royalty? Treasury should be compensated for
the extra lights and flushes. The absurdity must stop, these people purport that they are saving taxpayers by doing this. Even youth hostels have a room fee!
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9 votes
Set the shortened statutory period for a response to 1 month (30 days) for all office actions instead of 3 months for most actions. Patent Attorneys and Examiners are human beings. They forget details over time. Faster responses mean less re-work. In a digital age a 1-month response time is more than adequate. Moreover, if more time is needed, applicant would still have access to extensions of time under 37 CFR 1.136. ...more »
Set the shortened statutory period for a response to 1 month (30 days) for all office actions instead of 3 months for most actions.
Patent Attorneys and Examiners are human beings. They forget details over time. Faster responses mean less re-work.
In a digital age a 1-month response time is more than adequate. Moreover, if more time is needed, applicant would still have access to extensions of time under 37 CFR 1.136.
Authority to make the change can be found in 35 USC 133.
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58 votes
The $1 bill cost more than a dollar to produce. It is time we replace it with coins like they have done in Europe. They last longer and are cheaper to make.
13 votes
Create an accredited K through Doctorate internet University of the United States of America, on which all citizens can learn and recieve credit for testing on any subject they like, at any time, for free. Over the next few years, offer traditional classroom teachers a bonus for recording all lecture material and posting it to this website until every subject has 1000's of hours of detailed video, created by accredited ...more »
Create an accredited K through Doctorate internet University of the United States of America, on which all citizens can learn and recieve credit for testing on any subject they like, at any time, for free. Over the next few years, offer traditional classroom teachers a bonus for recording all lecture material and posting it to this website until every subject has 1000's of hours of detailed video, created by accredited professors, with students ranking the best content. Credit gained through passing online tests at this University should be accepted as equivalent, to any other university, but will continue to have a large social stigma for generations, as people will still favor more "prestigious" or "traditional" degrees. It should cost two to three times as much to build as a traditional university, but handle a virtually infinite number of students, lowering the total cost of education substantially, while providing much more flexibillity, and up to date (patched) information for students. If we can't compete in the international marketplace with a tool like this... We don't deserve to compete.
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13 votes
The Patent office does a good job, but it can be expensive to patent an idea. Many people have good ideas, but don't follow through with them because of the expense. The Patent office should allow each inventor to have their first patent done free. This way new ideas would be able to come to fruition and this would lead to new products being developed and ultimately more jobs being developed.
12 votes
Allow us to negotiate locally for health insurance. Locally, we can cut the price of our premiums almost in half. OPM shouldnt be allowed to negotiate for us.
19 votes
Periodically many Federal Agencies must upgrade their computers due to the nature of their work and the security required. Hundreds of thousands of computers are then donated to the public without any coordination or oversight. The suggestion is rather than gifting these computers the govt should thoughtfully coordinate and create a program to re-use and re cycle the computers keeping them within federal programs such ...more »
Periodically many Federal Agencies must upgrade their computers due to the nature of their work and the security required. Hundreds of thousands of computers are then donated to the public without any coordination or oversight. The suggestion is rather than gifting these computers the govt should thoughtfully coordinate and create a program to re-use and re cycle the computers keeping them within federal programs such as Peace Corps, USAID, state Dept,
education programs, libraries, public schools,training programs, community colleges,other existing programs- don't throw away milions or billions of dolars worth of computing power every year but harness it for the good of the country and keep it within the vision of the programs created by the federal government.
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9 votes
By improving each process, no matter how small, government will become more efficient over time and require much less labor. And less labor spells lower costs. This also will offer better services and less confusion for the consumer. There is no need to hire LEAN to come in a evaluate processes. It is up to the employees to be willing to think outside the box and most importantly be flexible and willing to make the ...more »
By improving each process, no matter how small, government will become more efficient over time and require much less labor. And less labor spells lower costs.
This also will offer better services and less confusion for the consumer.
There is no need to hire LEAN to come in a evaluate processes. It is up to the employees to be willing to think outside the box and most importantly be flexible and willing to make the necessary changes.
You can find many resources on implementing process improvements all over the web.
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12 votes
By simply banning toll barriers anywhere within 10 miles of any bridge or significant incline/decline; we can help ensure fuel efficiency and make travel easier. Putting tolls at the either side of a bridge is ridiculously wasteful. At some point, in these toll situations, vehicles lose all momentum and need to gain momentum again. Conserve fuel, conserve brakes, conserve peoples sanity by eliminating uneccessary tolls ...more »
By simply banning toll barriers anywhere within 10 miles of any bridge or significant incline/decline; we can help ensure fuel efficiency and make travel easier. Putting tolls at the either side of a bridge is ridiculously wasteful. At some point, in these toll situations, vehicles lose all momentum and need to gain momentum again. Conserve fuel, conserve brakes, conserve peoples sanity by eliminating uneccessary tolls at bridges and abutments. The toll roads will just have to make up the loss somewhere else, by raising other tolls, etc.
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72 votes
1. Saves energy in America.
2. Saves roads / extends their life
3. Less energy consumed in office space
4. Focus for projects
5. Improved morale
6. More agile workforce able to work offsite during contingencies
26 votes
Most government offices are kept uncomfortably warm in the winter and overcooled in the summer. And to make matters worse, I regularly find the heat/AC left at these excessive settings overnight and over weekends, in addition to lights, monitors, computers, etc. While we have a nice shredder, some are too lazy (too important?) to sort sensitive vs. not sensitive items they no longer need, or to shred on a regular basis, ...more »
Most government offices are kept uncomfortably warm in the winter and overcooled in the summer. And to make matters worse, I regularly find the heat/AC left at these excessive settings overnight and over weekends, in addition to lights, monitors, computers, etc. While we have a nice shredder, some are too lazy (too important?) to sort sensitive vs. not sensitive items they no longer need, or to shred on a regular basis, which causes us to hire a costly service and waste a lot of man hours babysitting the service and moving around the mountains of shredding created - many of it not even sensitive information (i.e. empty file folders, envelopes, public or open source information). Supplies such a pens, pencils, paper, disappear at alarming rates and have to be purchased through a specific vendor at inflated prices. Over 24 years of government service I can not count how many of my peers have made fun of me for considering the best price for fuel/service for my government vehicle, using a personally less convenient airport to save 50 - 75% on air fare, and using the same pen for a year (instead of carrying one home by accident almost daily and throwing it away) or reuse a piece of paper that came out of the printer blank, or with one or two marks on it. I could go on, but the point is, I can not believe my coworkers are so wasteful in their own homes and lives. We all pay taxes, so isn't it essentially our own money we are wasting with these practices at the office?
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90 votes
My building in the military had one that powered the HVAC and the hot water. We were always very comfortable and it was not at the expense of taxpayers beyond installation. What made this good was that we were a 24/7 function. We need more of these where it pays to add them and they should be made in America!
10 votes
One of the basic principles of Economics: People respond to incentives. Rather than buying everything through GSA vendors who inflate their prices to line their pockets with government gold, there should be an incentive program for employees to research and find a better price on the same product carried through the limited GSA vendors. Government vendors know that their prices don't necessarily need to be competitive, ...more »
One of the basic principles of Economics: People respond to incentives.
Rather than buying everything through GSA vendors who inflate their prices to line their pockets with government gold, there should be an incentive program for employees to research and find a better price on the same product carried through the limited GSA vendors.
Government vendors know that their prices don't necessarily need to be competitive, which allows them to price gouge government credit card holders with no remorse.
Solution:
Reward employees for finding cheaper prices on government purchases while saving government money.
Employees would earn Time off / "Comp TIme" in incremental hours , as this is a cost-effective method compared to rewarding employees with a monetary bonus.
If applied, employees would be able to research better priced GSA-alternatives in their off-time, and not while on duty hours.
Benefit: Government saves money on their purchases, Civilian employees are motivated to save government money by being rewarded with time off, and GSA vendors lower their prices in order to be competitive with other companies.
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41 votes
For decades we have focused on free trade. This is not a bad thing but Americans must hear from the top that buying American is a good thing to do. If we buy more then prices go down.
I looked at the American Living line in JC Penney and it is made in the usual suspects. They charge more and you would think it would be AMERICAN made!
12 votes
We constantly hear that we should come up with cost savings and efficiency improvements. That is great and the workforce willingly does so. There is a tremendous amount of talent and a lot of imagination and creativity in the rank and file. When the new, more efficient methods are presented to management, they are unwilling to take the small risk to try something new. They are comfortable using the methods that have been ...more »
We constantly hear that we should come up with cost savings and efficiency improvements. That is great and the workforce willingly does so. There is a tremendous amount of talent and a lot of imagination and creativity in the rank and file. When the new, more efficient methods are presented to management, they are unwilling to take the small risk to try something new. They are comfortable using the methods that have been in place since WWII. The Gov't can no longer afford to keep doing things in old, inefficient ways. If directives came down from HQ directing these people to adopt new technology, millions of dollars per year could be saved.
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19 votes
One of the greatest detriments to our competitiveness worldwide, is our inabillity to compete with much lower labor rates overseas. I suggest that we enforce our existing minimum wage laws (adjusted for the exchange rate), on all products sold here in the United States, ignoring their country of origin. Slowly, but surely, domestic employment will rise, and "international corporations" will choose to manufacture overseas, ...more »
One of the greatest detriments to our competitiveness worldwide, is our inabillity to compete with much lower labor rates overseas. I suggest that we enforce our existing minimum wage laws (adjusted for the exchange rate), on all products sold here in the United States, ignoring their country of origin. Slowly, but surely, domestic employment will rise, and "international corporations" will choose to manufacture overseas, only when there is a demand for their products overseas, rather than exporting our demand to a labor force that is paid a sub living wage.
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8 votes
There are many federal agencies that need to share information on a daily basis. For instance, the U.S. Attorney's handles SSDA appeals. For each person who appeals a SS decision at the federal level, their entire medical transcript must be mailed to the U.S. Attorney's office. SS pays approximately $30.00 to mail paper copies and another $5-$10 to mail the CD-ROMs of these same records. If there was a secure network ...more »
There are many federal agencies that need to share information on a daily basis. For instance, the U.S. Attorney's handles SSDA appeals. For each person who appeals a SS decision at the federal level, their entire medical transcript must be mailed to the U.S. Attorney's office. SS pays approximately $30.00 to mail paper copies and another $5-$10 to mail the CD-ROMs of these same records.
If there was a secure network where this information could be accessed, there would be no need to mail anything thus saving millions in postage. It would also eliminate the need to pay people to copy. While providing jobs is a good thing -- providing unnecessary jobs is costing this country billions.
Streamline is such a catchy word thrown around when talking about the government, how about we try it out?
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7 votes
It is estimated $21B is spent annually operating over 900,000 government buildings. We suggest applying Space Utilization Optimization technology developed for NASA to compress existing workforce into the most efficient facilities and divest from the remaining facilities. This process can reduce government infrastructure while improving synergy and effectiveness of the organizations housed in the remaining facilities. ...more »
It is estimated $21B is spent annually operating over 900,000 government buildings. We suggest applying Space Utilization Optimization technology developed for NASA to compress existing workforce into the most efficient facilities and divest from the remaining facilities. This process can reduce government infrastructure while improving synergy and effectiveness of the organizations housed in the remaining facilities.
For many years the GIS Team at NASA’s Langley Research Center has been developing automated decision-support tools for better management of NASA facilities. In our recent work we have succeeded in supporting more efficient use of facilities through the integration of optimization and spatial analysis technologies, which can be extended to energy and sustainability as well as other environmental, safety, and security considerations.
The technology could also be used to suggest the most cost effective locations for proposed new projects. It could suggest cases where modifications to existing facilities could provide cost effective solutions, as opposed to massive construction projects started from scratch.
We are slowly making progress within NASA; but, with additional high-level emphasis, the technology could have quicker and broader impact not only within NASA but also across any Government facilities in America. Additionally, this could be an important technology for export; we have received inquires regarding access to the technology from various organizations (including military) in several countries.
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14 votes
We could scrap all current government-funded health insurance and health care and institute a self-sustaining National Health Insurance covering all citizens and paid for by all citizens, in part - with a National Sales Tax. This would be an immediate shot in the arm for American industry and business, as well as provide a new flexibility for American workers. No American should have to depend on anyone else for their ...more »
We could scrap all current government-funded health insurance and health care and institute a self-sustaining National Health Insurance covering all citizens and paid for by all citizens, in part - with a National Sales Tax. This would be an immediate shot in the arm for American industry and business, as well as provide a new flexibility for American workers. No American should have to depend on anyone else for their health insurance. It makes sense. The only way to ensure all Americans are insured is to insure all Americans. I have a viable plan based on a 4% National Sales Tax, a 3% payroll tax and a 4% corporate EBITA tax. This would fully fund our health insurance needs - $5000+ per capita indemnity - and insurance companies who suffer economic damage can be compensated with health trust money and through eminent domain arbitration. The day after a self-supporting National Health Insurance plan is put into place, the federal budget will be closer to balance as well as many states. P.S. as part of this plan, everybody will have to pay reasonable but mandatory copays, even the "poor".
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24 votes
Create a National Building Code that mandates the use of solar panels in new construction in areas of the country where the sun shines 200 days of the year or more. Each building would be required to have a percentage of the roof covered with solar panels that feed into the grid. For water, mandate the use of low flush toilets and other water saving devices. As well, mandate that at least 75% of all materials be manufactured ...more »
Create a National Building Code that mandates the use of solar panels in new construction in areas of the country where the sun shines 200 days of the year or more. Each building would be required to have a percentage of the roof covered with solar panels that feed into the grid.
For water, mandate the use of low flush toilets and other water saving devices.
As well, mandate that at least 75% of all materials be manufactured in the U.S.
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9 votes
For OCONUS bases, the U.S. military transports all mail for their service members. Much of this mail ends up being junk or bulk mail. This consists of coupons, free magazines, advertisements, etc which the service member cannot use for the most part anyways. For certain bulk/junk mail it is shipped 1st class to members. Both of these mailing options increase cost where no real demand for these items exist. It has been ...more »
For OCONUS bases, the U.S. military transports all mail for their service members. Much of this mail ends up being junk or bulk mail. This consists of coupons, free magazines, advertisements, etc which the service member cannot use for the most part anyways. For certain bulk/junk mail it is shipped 1st class to members. Both of these mailing options increase cost where no real demand for these items exist.
It has been argued that receiving these items in the mail is a "Quality of Life" initiative. I and many would disagree. Receiving spam or junk mail does not contribute positively to someone's well being especially for the enormous cost.
It has been estimated that the total cost for all bulk mail government-wide would be $100M per year.
Since many do discard thesitems immediately upon arrival, it would make sense to eliminate this program altogether. (I pitched the junk mail into people's boxes and cleaned the trash and found that the junk mail had just made its way into the trash can).
The USAF had conducted a study on this in the last 3 years so this data is still available.
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42 votes
Change all default typeset to Century Gothic, which saves 30% more ink than Arial. This would result in millions of dollars in savings for the government, with a very simple change.
29 votes
Retiring of older employees will effectively reduce payroll costs and infuse programs with "new blood". Though not appropriate for everyone, there are many that would choose the option. Opening up positions would/could contribute to government helping to reduce unemployment and putting capable people to work.
