The SAVE Award Final Four
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on December 07, 2009 at 08:13 AM EDT At the end of September, OMB launched the President’s SAVE Award – a contest for federal employees to come up with the best idea to save taxpayer dollars and make the government perform more effectively and efficiently.
The response was impressive. In just three weeks, we received 38,484 entries from federal employees all across the country. OMB staff assessed the ideas, passing back the best ones to agencies to include in their submissions for the FY 2011 budget. And the suggestions that were in need of government-wide action stayed here at OMB for our staff to begin working on. Over the coming months, we hope to implement many of these excellent ideas.
We also winnowed some of the most common-sense ideas to a "final four." Now, it’s your turn to get involved. Go to www.SAVEAward.gov and rate the ideas (as well as see a video by the President announcing the finalists). The winner will be able to present their idea to the President in person, and will have that idea included in the Administration's FY 2011 budget.
The website has more information about the final four, but in a nutshell, they are:
- Make Social Security appointments online, from Christie Dickson of Alabama.
- Cut red tape in the way visitor fees and other funds from National Forests are deposited in the government’s bank account, from Julie Fosbender of West Virginia.
- Let veterans leaving VA hospitals keep the medications they’ve been using instead of throwing them away upon discharge, from Nancy Fichtner of Colorado.
- Streamline redundant inspections of subsidized housing – saving inspectors’ time and taxpayers’ money, from Huston Prescott of Alaska.
Now more than ever, it’s time to fix or end government programs that don’t work and waste Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars. The SAVE Award is just one step we’re taking to bring new thinking into how your government is run and to instill a heightened sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent. Read the Final Four, and don’t forget to vote!
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