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Justice Employee a Finalist for the Presidents' SAVE Award
You can vote to support Trudy’s idea for the SAVE Award at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/save-award
When longtime Department of Justice Bureau of Prisons employee Trudy Givens last noticed a copy of the Federal Register in her office, the same simple thought that had been occurring to her for more than a decade struck her once again: "Why?"
When asked what inspired her idea, Givens, of Portage, Wisconsin, said:
"Only one time during my 19 years have I researched a government decision in the Federal Register. I believe allowing agencies to ‘opt-out’ of receiving the Federal Register, or making it available online only, would not only save the government money, but also comply with the Paper Reduction Act of 1995, reduce the use of our natural resources, and eliminate excess waste in our nation’s landfills."
Someone at the White House agreed. Givens’s idea for ending the mailing of thousands of federal registers to employees was one of the four finalists this year for the SAVE Award, selected out of more than 18,000 submissions by federal employees for saving tax dollars and making government work better based on first-hand experiences. Unlike last year, there were more than 164,000 votes cast by peers this year as a result of new technology, which helped to elevate Givens’s idea to the top.
The statistics suggest why. According to the White House, the Federal Register – the government’s official daily publication for agency rules, proposed rules, and notices; executive orders; and other presidential documents – is currently mailed to approximately 8,000 federal employees every workday, even though most of the interested public now accesses the Federal Register online. When a similar "opt-in" option was offered to the public, the number of hard copies mailed was reduced from roughly 25,000 to 500.
Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients explained the origins of the contest in a White House video:
"It’s a perennial slogan of politicians that they want to cut out the waste, fraud, and abuse in government – if you wonder what exactly they’re referring to, you’re right to. Too often, it never gets past the rhetoric stage. But you probably didn’t know that last year, your government came together to really start rooting out that waste… The SAVE Award is part of this effort. The President has always said that the best ideas usually don’t come from the Washington or from the top. They come from the folks on the front lines."
The three other SAVE Award finalist ideas this year include proposals to post public notices for seized property online, not in newspapers; to stop the express delivery of empty USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service containers; and to require mine operators to use online forms. According to the award criteria, proposals must improve the quality of output at lower costs, simplify processes to reduce administrative burden, or improve the speed of government operations to improve efficiency.
Givens hopes her idea prevails so that the government will save money – and our planet will be healthy. But there’s one more incentive to help this longtime Department of Justice employee in her quest for efficiency: if she wins, Givens gets to meet and chat with the President of the United States – not half bad as a perk for what began years ago as only a simple observation of "why."
You can vote to support Trudy’s idea for the SAVE Award at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/save-awardUpdated April 7, 2017
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