The 2012 SAVE Award

Today, we launched the fourth annual SAVE Award (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) – a competition for federal employees to submit ideas about how to cut waste, save taxpayer dollars, and make government more effective and efficient. 

Over the past three years, Federal employees from every corner of the country have submitted more than 75,000 cost-cutting ideas through the SAVE Award. From shifting expensive magazines from print to online, to creating a tool “lending library” to cut down on duplicative purchases for flight projects – Federal workers have stepped up and thought creatively about how their agencies can do more with less.

Already, we’ve begun to see how those ideas can make a difference. The President’s last three budgets included approximately 60 SAVE Award ideas that are helping to save millions of taxpayer dollars while delivering the American people efficient and effective government they deserve. That’s what the SAVE Award is all about -- enlisting the creativity and expertise of federal employees on the front lines to find ways to cut waste and make government work better. So if you’re a Federal employee with an idea about how to improve the way your agency does business, take a minute to submit your idea here. Submitting an idea is quick and easy, and the winner will get to present his or her idea directly to the President here at the White House. 

We know that these ideas alone aren’t going to close the deficit of fix our fiscal situation overnight, but they are critical to making sure that the American people can have confidence that their government is a careful steward of their tax dollars.

So if you’re a Federal employee, send us your idea. And everyone else: stay tuned. In the next few months, we’ll be looking to you to help pick this year’s winner!