Community Member

Member since 2 years ago

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9 ideas posted

32 comments 60 votes

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Department/Agency:

Homeland Security-Customs and Border Protection

City:

Washington

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• Government Reform for Competition and Innovation Ideas

Ideas contributed by Community Member

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  Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »

  Services fee for non resident visitors

  What about charging a 'services fee'? Each time a non-resident enters the United States, charge a 'Services' fee; Not to be charged more than once a month-vaild for one month. This would cover the items we are taxed for which non-residents (student, business visitors and tourists) get free. It would cover road construction, repair and maintenance, police and other public service employees, waterway fees and entrance ...more »

  What about charging a 'services fee'? Each time a non-resident enters the United States, charge a 'Services' fee; Not to be charged more than once a month-vaild for one month.

  This would cover the items we are taxed for which non-residents (student, business visitors and tourists) get free. It would cover road construction, repair and maintenance, police and other public service employees, waterway fees and entrance fees to state and federally operated attractions, parks and facilities (whether or not they go each and every time-or ever). It would be one set fee valid for a thirty day period.

  This would actually encourage visitors to travel more in the country and visit monuments and museums, zoo, parks etc. and allow us to recoup some of the cost for visitor activities. They could be issued a receipt that when entering the United States would give them free access to typical tourist spots for one month.

  See similar-Tolls

  http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/123241-13060

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

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  8 votes

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  Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »

  Eliminate In Bond Movements- Assess Duty At First Port

  Unless a shipment is for immediate export, (the item lands here-transits the U.S. and within days will be exported) all items entering the United States should be assessed duty at the FIRST port of landing where they arrive (this includes cargo going into Foreign Trade Zones, Yards and Container Stations). In-bond movements allow importers to move cargo around indefinitely while they are searching for a buyer or they ...more »

  Unless a shipment is for immediate export, (the item lands here-transits the U.S. and within days will be exported) all items entering the United States should be assessed duty at the FIRST port of landing where they arrive (this includes cargo going into Foreign Trade Zones, Yards and Container Stations). In-bond movements allow importers to move cargo around indefinitely while they are searching for a buyer or they ship cargo from one warehouse to another until the identity of the goods are lost and somehow, they find their way into the economy while the importer presents a Shippers Export Declaration saying they drove the items over the land border the previous week. In no case should in-Bond (immediate export) documents be valid for longer than one week and they should not be extended except in the case of natural disasters.

  See http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/122336-13060

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

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  48 votes

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

  Close Gov buildings 3 or 4 days with AWS and Telework Options

  Mandate - shut down all non essential government buildings either Monday or Friday or Monday and Friday. Creating a 3 or 4 day office work week. Give employees the option of working 4, 10 hour days; 3, 12 hours days; 5, 8 hours days with two telework 4, 8 hour days with one day telework (tying into the weekend works best for energy conservation and consistency). That includes the post offices, labs, military retail ...more »

  Mandate - shut down all non essential government buildings either Monday or Friday or Monday and Friday. Creating a 3 or 4 day office work week.

  Give employees the option of working

  4, 10 hour days;

  3, 12 hours days;

  5, 8 hours days with two telework

  4, 8 hour days with one day telework

  (tying into the weekend works best for energy conservation and consistency). That includes the post offices, labs, military retail stores...etc. You would save a ton of money by opening the building for four days only, in utilities, fuel consumption etc...

  *People driving during non rush hour-Less road congestion and maintenance.

  *Less maintenance on mass transit

  *Reduction in spending

  *Save gasoline costs

  *Reduce pollution

  These changes will give you a cleaner greener planet, save lots of money AND very happy employees!

  I am not sure if this is an option for some agencies but you may want to keep the building open 7 days and run the above schedule and cut your office space in half.

  *Save on office space by staggering schedules (people working 3 office days and 2 telecommute Sun-Tues and people working 4 office days and 1 telecommute would work Wed-Sat)

  Related, http://governmentreform.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Eligible-for-Telecommuting-for-HQ-and-Admin-people/118791-13060

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  2 comments for Idea: Close Gov buildings 3 or 4 days with AWS and Telework Options

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

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  15 votes

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

  STOP targeting Federal Employee pay to secure Political Offices

  Just say no to wasteful spending to secure your office! While the politicians are busy trying to fix the budget by targeting federal employee pay and benefits I am getting letters from these same public servants requesting that we provide services in locations never covered before and at no cost to the government. In the past, inspection services were provided at ports of entry, inspection stations, and locations outside ...more »

  Just say no to wasteful spending to secure your office!

  While the politicians are busy trying to fix the budget by targeting federal employee pay and benefits I am getting letters from these same public servants requesting that we provide services in locations never covered before and at no cost to the government. In the past, inspection services were provided at ports of entry, inspection stations, and locations outside of port limits with high traffic (where costs are reimbursable).

  Now, politicians, who are representing their constituents (usually an airport or a general aviation facility owner) are requesting inspectional services at their sites and are not willing to pay the fees. We receive requests on a regular basis to expand operations, or begin operations at a new location at some small airport (sometimes to service gambling or golfing junkets) that had never been serviced before. Often times, there is a fully staffed airport a short distance away but the constituent’s reasoning is, as we provide services at other locations, we should be able to provide services there as well, or claims that this new location will a) create economic growth for their area (but at whose expense), the; if we build it they will come attitude, or b)it is cost prohibitive flying into an airport so far from operations/resort/home. Sometimes you just have to drive to the airport. It cannot always be in your back yard.

  Not only is this an unfunded expense we can no longer afford to maintian, we are expending resources we do not have and incurring additional risks. Sometime, this has to stop. Are we trying to be fiscally conservative or are we just making government bigger and bigger with government agents at every single commercial and private airport just in case someone from an international point of origin wants to arrive? Every request we receive and attempt to fulfill costs something. Time, money resources… SECURITY.

  Let’s save money…

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

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

  GS 9 and Above should be required to pass proficiency tests

  Federal employees should be required to take and pass a proficiency test for composition and writing skills as well as basic math skills for any promotion over the GS-9 level. This would make selecting the best person for the job far easier and more fair. It would increase productivity and efficiency and you could actually do more with less! Far too many federal employees (even with a college degree) are functionally ...more »

  Federal employees should be required to take and pass a proficiency test for composition and writing skills as well as basic math skills for any promotion over the GS-9 level. This would make selecting the best person for the job far easier and more fair. It would increase productivity and efficiency and you could actually do more with less! Far too many federal employees (even with a college degree) are functionally illiterate. When asked to produce written work it often must be re-done by another employee. Eventually, the functionally illiterate employee is not asked to complete that sort of work. This puts an unfair burden on other employees who must make up for his lack of skill and work twice as hard. As well as using twice the manpower than it should, is a morale breaker and makes it more difficult and time consuming to get a product out. This would not apply to mentally challenged individuals.

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  27 comments for Idea: GS 9 and Above should be required to pass proficiency tests

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

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  9 votes

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

  Donate Annual Leave To The CFC

  Allow employees to donate their annual leave each year as a one time contribution to the CFC. It is ideal for Use or Lose leave or just a great way to give back to those with greater need.....

  2 comments for Idea: Donate Annual Leave To The CFC

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

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  9 votes

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

  Eliminate uniforms for HQ and Admin personnel

  Eliminate uniforms, field equipment and the requisite training for employees working in headquarters or administrative positions especially for those who have never worked or trained for law enforcement. If you are not in a ‘field office(r)’ position you do not need to wear a uniform, carry special equipment or be trained on equipment you will never use in an HQ, administrative or management position. The federal government ...more »

  Eliminate uniforms, field equipment and the requisite training for employees working in headquarters or administrative positions especially for those who have never worked or trained for law enforcement. If you are not in a ‘field office(r)’ position you do not need to wear a uniform, carry special equipment or be trained on equipment you will never use in an HQ, administrative or management position.

  The federal government expends a large amount of money on uniform allowances, special equipment and training. In my agency, each officer is allowed $800.00 per year in uniforms alone. That, plus the cost of equipment and training is well over 1500.00 per person to sit behind a desk and push out policy and memos to field offices. Not only is it not cost effective to have admin people in uniform, it is sometimes a detractor when working in a professionalism environment.

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  1 comment for Idea: Eliminate uniforms for HQ and Admin personnel

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

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  9 votes

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

  Eligible for Telecommuting for HQ and Admin people

  Almost all jobs in the DC area should be designated as eligible for telecommuting or working from home a minimum of two days per week. Senior managers devise all sorts of reasons to show that their office should be exempt from tele-work and have them designated as ‘essential’ functions and to keep them on site. There are several reasons for this; there is a basic lack of trust and some managers feel that to get the ...more »

  Almost all jobs in the DC area should be designated as eligible for telecommuting or working from home a minimum of two days per week. Senior managers devise all sorts of reasons to show that their office should be exempt from tele-work and have them designated as ‘essential’ functions and to keep them on site. There are several reasons for this; there is a basic lack of trust and some managers feel that to get the work done they need to micro-manage and be able to ‘see’ their employees working. Some managers feel that if they do not have a staff to call upon they may not be needed as managers.

  The reality is, if you are working in a ‘Headquarters’ position and not a field office, much of your duties are administrative and you produce an enormous amount of correspondence. This work could be done from home or an alternate location closer to home. The fact that managers are reluctant to allow employees to work independently goes back to inadequate training and people being promoted (for various reasons) to positions for which they are not qualified. This should be addressed by senior managers and corrected rather than spending effort and time in figuring out ways of not having to comply with the TELEWORK mandate.

  By mandating all HQ positions (including managers) be eligible to telecommute the federal government will save money on PTIPS and other subsidized transportation costs, office space and utilities, supplies, reduce costs for their employees for fuel, tolls and parking. Reduce congestion, accidents and overcrowding on the commuter routes. Reduce carbon footprint, fossil fuel consumption, wear and tear on vehicles and improve quality of life for employees who do not have to spend 2+ hours per day sitting in traffic trying to get to work.

  As an aside, dedicated tele-work centers are an unnecessary expense as you still have a tremendous amount of overhead and responsibility. If a person wants to sit at a desk and work on a computer they can either furnish a home office (and write some of it off on their taxes) or go to a local library (public, high school or college) and work there. Maybe the federal government can work with schools and libraries to partially lease underutilized locations to allow employees who need a structured environment or office type setting to work at or an offsite (fed gov bldg) location closer to their homes may be available. For the rest of us, there are laptops and Mobi-keys!

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  5 comments for Idea: Eligible for Telecommuting for HQ and Admin people

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

• I agree

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  6 votes

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

  Awarding contracts to the BEST bids

  When a Request For Information (RFI) goes out, all companies that respond and want to bid on a job should be required to sit with the contracting agency-together as a group, to determine EVERYTHING that will need to be included in a contract to get the job done that the agency intended. If your company does not participate in developing the steps necessary to get to the objective, then your company will not be permitted ...more »

  When a Request For Information (RFI) goes out, all companies that respond and want to bid on a job should be required to sit with the contracting agency-together as a group, to determine EVERYTHING that will need to be included in a contract to get the job done that the agency intended. If your company does not participate in developing the steps necessary to get to the objective, then your company will not be permitted to bid. This will prevent cost over-runs and having to go back to renegotiate a contract (at a higher rate of course-as they have already been awarded the job) because the COTAR was not aware they needed a particular function performed and it has not been listed in the Statement of work. Once the requirements are fully developed they all get to bid on the same contract; on the same statement of work, with everything necessary to complete the job- spelled out….

  In this way, you have full transparency and all parties are aware of resources needed to complete the job as is envisioned.

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  Add your comment for Idea: Awarding contracts to the BEST bids

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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