IIB 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1660 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 1, 2013 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs 

AN ACT 

To require the establishment of Federal customer service 

standards and to improve the service provided by Federal 

agencies. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Government Customer 

3 Service Improvement Act of 2013’’. 

4 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

5 In this Act: 

6 (1) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’— 

7 (A) means an Executive agency (as defined 

8 under section 105 of title 5, United States 

9 Code) that provides significant services directly 

10 to the public or other entity; and 

11 (B) does not include an Executive agency 

12 if the President determines that this Act should 

13 not apply to the Executive agency for national 

14 security reasons. 

15 (2) CUSTOMER.—The term ‘‘customer’’, with 

16 respect to an agency, means any individual or entity 

17 that is directly served by an agency. 

18 SEC. 3. DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMER SERVICE STAND19 ARDS. 

20 (a) GOVERNMENT-WIDE STANDARDS.— 

21 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of 

22 Management and Budget shall develop Government23 wide standards for customer service delivery, which 

24 shall be included in the Federal Government Per25 formance Plan required under section 1115 of title 

26 31, United States Code. 


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1 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—The standards developed 

2 under paragraph (1) shall include— 

3 (A) Government-wide goals for continuous 

4 service improvements and efforts to modernize 

5 service delivery; and 

6 (B) where appropriate, Government-wide 

7 target response times for telephone calls, elec8 tronic mail, mail, benefit processing, and pay9 ments. 

10 (b) AGENCY STANDARDS.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Performance Improve12 ment Officer for each agency shall establish cus13 tomer service standards in accordance with the Gov14 ernment-wide standards developed under subsection 

15 (a), which shall be included in the Agency Perform16 ance Plans required under section 1115 of title 31, 

17 United States Code. 

18 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—Agency standards estab19 lished under paragraph (1) shall include, if appro20 priate— 

21 (A) target call wait times during peak and 

22 non-peak hours; 

23 (B) target response times for correspond24 ence, both by mail and electronic mail; 


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1 (C) procedures for ensuring all applicable 

2 metrics are incorporated into service agree3 ments with nongovernmental individuals and 

4 entities; 

5 (D) target response times for processing 

6 benefits and making payments; and 

7 (E) recommendations for effective publica8 tion of customer service contact information, in9 cluding a mailing address, telephone number, 

10 and email address. 

11 (c) CUSTOMER SERVICE INPUT.— 

12 (1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Director of the Of13 fice of Management and Budget shall establish a 

14 Customer Service Feedback Pilot Program. The 

15 pilot program shall include participation by the In16 ternal Revenue Service and a minimum of two addi17 tional agencies selected by the Director and shall 

18 continue for a period of at least three years. The Di19 rector shall require participating agencies to imple20 ment a customer service feedback system to collect 

21 information from customers of the agency regarding 

22 the quality of customer service provided by the agen23 cy, including— 

24 (A) information on the extent to which 

25 agency performance complies with the GovernVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:33 Aug 02, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1660.RFS H1660

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1 ment-wide standards developed under sub2 section (a); and 

3 (B) feedback on the quality of customer 

4 service provided by the agency employee or em5 ployees with whom the customer interacted. 

6 (2) LIMITATION.—An agency may not publish 

7 or make publically available information collected 

8 under the feedback system that is specific to a 

9 named employee. 

10 (3) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IN PERFORM11 ANCE REPORT.—In developing the performance re12 port made available by the agency under section 

13 1116 of title 31, United States Code, each agency— 

14 (A) shall include the information collected 

15 under this subsection; and 

16 (B) may include aggregate data collected 

17 under paragraph (1)(B) without including 

18 names of specific agency employees. 

19 (4) REPORT TO CONGRESS ON CUSTOMER SERV20 ICE FEEDBACK PILOT PROGRAM.—Not later than 

21 two years after the implementation of the Customer 

22 Service Feedback Pilot Program established under 

23 this subsection, the Comptroller General shall sub24 mit to Congress a report assessing the pilot program 


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1 and a recommendation on whether such program 

2 should be expanded Government-wide. 

3 (d) ANNUAL PERFORMANCE UPDATE.—The Director 

4 of the Office of Management and Budget shall include 

5 achievements by agencies in meeting the customer service 

6 performance standards developed under subsection (a) in 

7 each update on agency performance required under section 

8 1116 of title 31, United States Code. 

9 SEC. 4. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL. 

10 Compliance with customer service standards devel11 oped under this Act shall be included in employee ap12 praisal systems establish by agencies, including the per13 formance appraisal systems referred to in chapter 43 of 

14 title 5, United States Code. 

15 SEC. 5. SERVICE IMPROVEMENT UNIT PILOT PROGRAM. 

16 (a) ESTABLISHED.—The Director of the Office of 

17 Management and Budget shall establish a pilot program, 

18 to be known as the Service Improvement Unit Pilot Pro19 gram (in this section referred to as the ‘‘pilot program’’), 

20 to provide assistance to agencies that do not meet the Gov21 ernment-wide standards developed under section 3. 

22 (b) PERSONNEL.—The heads of agencies with exper23 tise in change management, process improvement, and in24 formation technology innovation shall detail employees to 

25 the Office of Management and Budget to work on the pilot 


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1 program, based on the expertise and skills required to ad2 dress service improvement goals. 

3 (c) RESPONSIBILITIES.—Under the pilot program, 

4 the Office of Management and Budget shall work with 

5 agencies that are not meeting the customer service stand6 ards developed under section 3 to improve and modernize 

7 service delivery to develop solutions, including— 

8 (1) evaluating the efforts of the agency to im9 prove service delivery; 

10 (2) developing a plan to improve within existing 

11 resources and by drawing on expertise and assist12 ance from other agencies (including the Office of 

13 Management and Budget) where necessary; 

14 (3) monitoring implementation by the agency of 

15 the plan developed under paragraph (2) until the 

16 customer service standards are met; and 

17 (4) submitting to the Director of the Office of 

18 Management and Budget monthly reports on the 

19 progress being made to improve service at the agen20 cy until the customer service standards are met. 

21 (d) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 

22 of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office of 

23 Management and Budget shall submit to Congress a re24 port on the accomplishments and outcomes of the pilot 


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1 program and any recommendations relating to achieving 

2 the customer service standards developed under section 3. 

3 (e) SUPPORT.—The Administrator of General Serv4 ices shall provide administrative and other support in 

5 order to implement the pilot program under this section. 

6 The heads of agencies shall, as appropriate and to the ex7 tent permitted by law, provide at the request of the Direc8 tor of the Office of Management and Budget up to 2 per9 sonnel authorizations who have expertise in change man10 agement, process improvement, and information tech11 nology innovation to support the pilot program. 

12 (f) TERMINATION.—The authority to carry out the 

13 pilot program shall terminate 2 years after the date of 

14 enactment of this Act. 

15 SEC. 6. RETIREMENT REPORTING. 

16 (a) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘agency’’ 

17 has the meaning given that term in section 551 of title 

18 5, United States Code. 

19 (b) REPORTS.— 

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para21 graph (2) and not later than 90 days after the date 

22 of enactment of this Act, and every month there23 after, the Director of the Office of Personnel Man24 agement shall submit to Congress and the Comp25 troller General of the United States, and issue pubVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:33 Aug 02, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1660.RFS H1660

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1 licly (including on the website of the Office of Per2 sonnel Management), a report that— 

3 (A) for each agency, evaluates the timeli4 ness, completeness, and accuracy of information 

5 submitted by the agency relating to employees 

6 of the agency who are retiring; and 

7 (B) indicates— 

8 (i) the total number of applications 

9 for retirement benefits, lump sum death 

10 benefits, court ordered benefits, phased re11 tirement, and disability retirement that are 

12 pending action by the Office of Personnel 

13 Management; and 

14 (ii) the number of months each such 

15 application has been pending. 

16 (2) SUSPENSION OF REPORTING REQUIRE17 MENT.—Paragraph (1) shall not apply to the Direc18 tor of the Office of Personnel Management for any 

19 month immediately following an 18-month period in 

20 which the average processing time of applications de21 scribed in paragraph (1)(B) reaches 90 days or less. 

22 (c) MODERNIZATION TIMELINE.—The Director of 

23 the Office of Personnel Management shall establish— 

24 (1) a timetable for the completion of each com25 ponent of the customer-focused retirement procVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:33 Aug 02, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1660.RFS H1660

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1 essing system of the Office of Personnel Manage2 ment, including all data elements required for accu3 rate completion of adjudication; and 

4 (2) the date by which all Federal payroll proc5 essing entities will electronically transmit all per6 sonnel data to the Office of Personnel Management. 

7 (d) BUDGET REQUEST.—The Office of Personnel 

8 Management shall include a detailed statement regarding 

9 the progress of the Office of Personnel Management in 

10 completing the customer-focused retirement processing 

11 system of the Office of Personnel Management in each 

12 budget request of the Office of Personnel Management 

13 submitted as part of the preparation of the budget of the 

14 President submitted to Congress under section 1105(a) of 

15 title 31, United States Code. 

16 SEC. 7. NO INCREASE IN EXPENDITURES. 

17 No additional funds are authorized to carry out this 

18 Act. This Act shall be carried out using amounts otherwise 

19 authorized or appropriated. 

Passed the House of Representatives July 31, 2013. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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