2010 SAVE Award Goes to Trudy Givens

CRFB would like to congratulate Trudy Givens of Portage, Wisconsin - the 2010 SAVE Award winner!

The SAVE Awards are given annually to a federal employee who has submitted an idea to make the federal government more efficient (we've blogged about the awards here and here). Thousands of submissions are received, and people can vote for a winner from a selected group of finalists on the White House website. Last year's winner, Department of Veterans Affairs employee Nancy Fichtner, proposed letting hospital patients take their medications with them upon discharge, rather than wasting them by throwing them out. 

Trudy, this year's winner, works as a Business Administrator at the Federal Correctional Institution in Oxford, Wisconsin. Her winning idea:

Over the course of her career, Trudy noticed that several copies of the Federal Register — the federal government’s official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices from Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents– were delivered to her workplace several times per week, but employees rarely referenced the documents. The Federal Register was made available online years ago, and most members of the interested public reference that online version now. Trudy thought that in keeping with the President’s spirit of cutting out waste and going green, the government should cease the printing and mailing of thousands of Federal Registers to employees who don’t need them.

OMB estimates that by using Trudy's idea and limiting distribution of printed copies of the Federal Register to those who really need them, they can save around $4 million per year. This goes to show that even small changes and efficiencies can add up to big savings. Congratulations, Trudy!