OMB releases cost-savings proposals across government

Agencies have tagged $243 million in potential savings in response to President Obama's request that they identify at least $100 million in cuts separate from those in the fiscal 2010 budget. On Monday, the Office of Management and Budget released 77 cost-savings proposals from 15 agencies. In a memorandum to the president, OMB Director Peter R. Orszag and Cabinet Secretary Christopher Lu wrote that $102 million would be gained in fiscal 2009 and about $140 million in fiscal 2010. "OMB and Cabinet Affairs worked with agencies to develop a group of proposals that were responsive to your call for additional savings and could be reasonably implemented in a short amount of time," Orszag and Lu wrote to the president. The proposals "vary widely both in their content and in the scope of the savings they would produce," Orszag and Lu said, but almost all fall into one of five categories -- asset management; energy and other resource usage; meeting, travel and training costs; procurement and contracting; and productivity or process improvements. In identifying where they can save money, agencies could raise eyebrows by exposing former practices. For example, the Agriculture Department's Forest Service noted it could save $1.8 million in fiscal 2009 by no longer repainting newly purchased vehicles. Justice reported it could save as much as $4 million by requiring employees to make travel reservations online rather than through travel agents. Defense tapped one of the larger chunks of savings with its plan to replace its standard jet fuel with commercial jet fuel with military additives. This would reduce costs by $52 million. A number of agencies said they have canceled conferences, meetings and training sessions that would require travel, lodging and venue costs, and will instead conduct the meetings remotely. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, for example, canceled a meeting in Australia, saving an estimated $36,000 in travel and per diem. The agency says a teleconference could replace the meeting. The Homeland Security Department told OMB it already has saved more than $2 million in fiscal 2009 with conference calls, Web-based training sessions and using government facilities for meetings and conferences. "These savings reflect the president's belief that even small savings can add up," Orszag wrote on the OMB Blog. "We look forward to continuing to work with agencies to identify further savings as part of the 2011 Budget process -- and anticipate that agencies will announce these savings in the weeks to come. And we hope that these steps will start to instill a culture of cost-savings and care when it comes to using taxpayer dollars."