Competition: Securing Americans value and efficiency Published July 16, 2012 By Jamie Morin Acting Under Secretary of the Air Force and Chief Management Officer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The White House continues to challenge federal employees to identify areas where we can save scarce taxpayer dollars while improving the way the government works. President Obama believes the best ideas usually come from the front lines and back in 2009 launched the SAVE Award (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) to seek ideas from Federal employees about how we can make government more efficient and effective. Over the past three years, Federal employees have submitted more than 75,000 cost-cutting ideas through the SAVE Award. Dozens of the most promising ideas have been included in the President's Budget, including some noteworthy Air Force submissions. I thank the many Airmen who participated in prior years and encourage you to take time to consider and submit good ideas this year as well. Please go to the Office of Management and Budget website (www.whitehouse.gov/save-award) by the 24 July deadline if you would like to submit an idea. You will see award criteria and prior year award winning ideas at the website. You can also encourage your co-workers to vote on your idea or submit their own. The winner gets to come to Washington to present his or her idea to the President for possible inclusion in the next budget. Our most valuable resource is our talented and innovative military and civilian workforce. At a time when the nation continues to face fiscal and economic challenges, it's all the more important that we work together to get the maximum combat capability out of each dollar the taxpayers entrust to us -- every good idea matters! Again, thank you in advance for your participation in this year's SAVE challenge, and for what each of you do every day to make our Air Force the best in the world.