Topic: Domestic Commerce — Banking
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2015-01-28 00:00:00

Savings, Accountability, Value, and Efficiency Act of 2015 or the SAVE Act 

TITLE I--SAVE I

Savings, Accountability, Value, and Efficiency I Act or the SAVE I Act

Requires, every two years: (1) the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to publish a national strategy for managing excess and underutilized federal real property; and (2) the Administrator of the General Services Administration to implement a plan to improve the Federal Real Property Profile that ensures the data collected is complete, accurate, and consistent.

Requires the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy to issue guidance to federal agencies for reinvigorating the role of the competition advocate.

Requires the OMB to issue government-wide savings goals for the strategic sourcing of goods and services by executive agencies.

Requires each executive agency to develop and report on a policy for evaluating the effectiveness of information technology investments.

Rescinds unobligated budget authority for the Department of Energy Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.

Amends title XI (General Provisions) of the Social Security Act to require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to report on efforts to finalize plans and schedules for fully implementing and expanding the use of the Integrated Data Repository and on actions taken to plan, schedule, and conduct training on the One Program Integrity System.

Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to report on the adequacy of agricultural quarantine and inspection fees.

Amends the USEC Privatization Act to expand the definition of "uranium" for purposes of transfers and sales to include depleted uranium and any byproduct of uranium processing.

Requires the OMB to develop a strategy to assess the collective results of federal funding for the reduction of mobile source diesel emissions and to identify and eliminate any unnecessary duplication, overlap, and fragmentation of such activities.

TITLE II--SAVE II

Savings, Accountability, Value, and Efficiency II Act or SAVE II Act

Requires the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Task Force to examine the entire UAS portfolio of the Department of Defense (DOD), including UAS requirements, platforms, payloads, and ground control stations, to develop strategies for improved interoperability of existing systems.

 Directs DOD to: (1) identify areas in which commonality with other unmanned aircraft systems across the UAS portfolio will be achieved, (2) request a federally-funded research and development center to study UAS interoperability and overlap issues, (3) report to Congress on the examination of the UAS portfolio and the UAS study, and (4) issue revised excess inventory management guidance.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide for the denial, revocation, or limitation of a passport or passport card for individuals with a seriously delinquent tax debt in excess of $50,000. Prohibits the Department of State from issuing a passport to an individual with a seriously delinquent tax debt and requires State to revoke the passport of such an individual, with an exception for emergency circumstances or humanitarian reasons. Allows disclosure of tax return information to State for purposes of processing passports of individuals with a seriously delinquent tax debt.

Directs the Secretary of Commerce to report on the merits and feasibility of converting from a retrospective antidumping and countervailing duty collection system to a prospective one, including an estimate of resulting costs and cost savings.

Requires the Inspector General of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to report on the effectiveness of each USAID foreign assistance program and project.

Directs the Department of Justice to convert all X-ray systems in federal prisons from analog, film-based systems to digital, filmless systems by 2015.

 Prohibits the Department of the Treasury from minting or issuing any coin, or engraving or printing any U.S. currency, that costs more to produce than the denomination of such coin or currency.

Requires the Director of the Government Publishing Office to make any document of the House of Representatives or Senate available only in an electronic format accessible through the Internet and prohibits the printing or distribution of a printed copy of any such document, with a limited exception for requests by any person for whom the Director would have been required to provide a printed copy.

TITLE III--SAVE III

Savings, Accountability, Value, and Efficiency III Act

Requires the OMB to issue software licensing policies for federal agencies.

Amends the National Energy Conservation Policy Act to expand the definition of "energy or water conservation measure" to include, in the case of a contract in which the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is a party: (1) the purchase or lease of low emission and fuel efficient vehicles; (2) the upgrade of USPS vehicles to increase average fuel economy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions; or (3) the construction of infrastructure to support such vehicles, including electric vehicle charging stations.

 Directs the Postmaster General to develop guidelines for USPS vehicles that provide for specified carbon dioxide emissions and fuel economy standards.

Requires the head of each federal agency to ensure that agency desktop computers are shut down for at least 4 hours out of each 24-hour time period, except for certain computers that are in use for 16 or more hours per day.

Denies payment of civil service retirement benefits and requires forfeiture of thrift saving plan agency contributions for federal employees who are convicted of certain public corruption offenses.

 Requires DOD to implement specified criteria in requests for overseas contingency operations.

Amends the National Energy Conservation Policy Act to direct each federal facility energy manager, not later than two years after completion of a comprehensive energy evaluation of a federal agency's facilities, to consider: (1) implementing any energy-saving or conservation measure identified in the evaluation that is life cycle cost-effective, and (2) bundling individual measures of varying paybacks together into combined projects.

Directs HHS to examine and report on which payments may be made under both the Medicare Advantage Program and the veterans health care system or the TRICARE program for health care furnished to individuals eligible under such programs.

Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to provide Medicare beneficiaries with an option to receive statements of benefits in a electronic format.

TITLE IV--SAVE IV

Savings, Accountability, Value, & Efficiency IV Act or the SAVE Act IV

Sets forth reporting requirements for: (1) the Department of Treasury on the challenges that identity theft poses for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), especially the ability of IRS to identify false tax returns before fraudulent refunds are issued; (2) HHS on whether the purchase of medical equipment and supplies for Medicare is more cost effective than the rental of such equipment and supplies; and (3) DOD on streamlining the management of contracts for DOD foreign language support programs.

Requires: (1) DOD to award a contract to a private auditor to perform an audit of DOD financial statements for FY2018, and (2) the Secretaries of the military departments to enter into contracts for the performance of maintenance and administrative functions at military installations under their jurisdiction with a proximately-located local or state government.