I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1660 

To require the establishment of Federal customer service standards and 

to improve the service provided by Federal agencies. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 19, 2013 

Mr. CUELLAR (for himself and Mr. MCCAUL) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

A BILL 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

5 Service Improvement Act of 2013’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 

8 (1) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’— 

9 (A) means an Executive agency (as defined 

10 under section 105 of title 5, United States 


smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
2 

•HR 1660 IH

1 Code) that provides significant services directly 

2 to the public or other entity; and 

3 (B) does not include an Executive agency 

4 if the President determines that this Act should 

5 not apply to the Executive agency for national 

6 security reasons. 

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

8 respect to an agency, means any individual or entity 

9 that is directly served by an agency. 

10 SEC. 3. DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMER SERVICE STAND11 ARDS. 

12 (a) GOVERNMENT-WIDE STANDARDS.— 

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

14 Management and Budget shall develop Government15 wide standards for customer service delivery, which 

16 shall be included in the Federal Government Per17 formance Plan required under section 1115 of title 

18 31, United States Code. 

19 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—The standards developed 

20 under paragraph (1) shall include— 

21 (A) Government-wide goals for continuous 

22 service improvements and efforts to modernize 

23 service delivery; and 

24 (B) where appropriate, Government-wide 

25 target response times for telephone calls, elecVerDate Mar 15 2010 03:52 Apr 27, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1660.IH H1660

smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
3 

•HR 1660 IH

1 tronic mail, mail, benefit processing, and pay2 ments. 

3 (b) AGENCY STANDARDS.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Chief Performance Offi5 cer for each agency shall establish customer service 

6 standards in accordance with the Government-wide 

7 standards established under subsection (a), which 

8 shall be included in the Agency Performance Plans 

9 required under section 1115 of title 31, United 

10 States Code. 

11 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—Agency standards estab12 lished under paragraph (1) shall include, if appro13 priate— 

14 (A) target call wait times during peak and 

15 non-peak hours; 

16 (B) target response times for correspond17 ence, both by mail and electronic mail; 

18 (C) procedures for ensuring all applicable 

19 metrics are incorporated into service agree20 ments with nongovernmental individuals and 

21 entities; 

22 (D) target response times for processing 

23 benefits and making payments; and 

24 (E) recommendations for effective publica25 tion of customer service contact information, inVerDate Mar 15 2010 03:52 Apr 27, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1660.IH H1660

smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
4 

•HR 1660 IH

1 cluding a mailing address, telephone number, 

2 and email address. 

3 (c) CUSTOMER SERVICE INPUT.—The Performance 

4 Improvement Officer for each agency shall collect informa5 tion from customers of the agency regarding the quality 

6 of customer service provided by the agency. Each agency 

7 shall include the information collected under this sub8 section in the performance report made available by the 

9 agency under section 1116 of title 31, United States Code. 

10 (d) ANNUAL PERFORMANCE UPDATE.—The Director 

11 of the Office of Management and Budget shall include 

12 achievements by agencies in meeting the customer service 

13 performance measures and standards developed under 

14 subsection (a) in each update on agency performance re15 quired under section 1116 of title 31, United States Code. 

16 SEC. 4. SERVICE IMPROVEMENT UNIT PILOT PROGRAM. 

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

18 Management and Budget shall establish a pilot program, 

19 to be known as the Service Improvement Unit Pilot Pro20 gram (in this section referred to as the ‘‘pilot program’’), 

21 to provide assistance to agencies that do not meet the Gov22 ernment-wide standards established under section 3. 

23 (b) PERSONNEL.—The heads of agencies with exper24 tise in change management, process improvement, and in25 formation technology innovation shall detail employees to 


smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
5 

•HR 1660 IH

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

2 program, based on the expertise and skills required to ad3 dress service improvement goals. 

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

5 the Office of Management and Budget shall work with 

6 agencies that are not meeting the customer service stand7 ards and performance measures established under section 

8 3 to improve and modernize service delivery to develop so9 lutions, including— 

10 (1) evaluating the efforts of the agency to im11 prove service delivery; 

12 (2) developing a plan to improve within existing 

13 resources and by drawing on expertise and assist14 ance from other agencies (including the Office of 

15 Management and Budget) where necessary; 

16 (3) monitoring implementation by the agency of 

17 the plan developed under paragraph (2) until the 

18 customer service standards and performance meas19 ures are met; and 

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

21 Management and Budget monthly reports on the 

22 progress being made to improve service at the agen23 cy until the customer service standards are met. 

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

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


smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
6 

•HR 1660 IH

1 Management and Budget shall submit to Congress a re2 port on the accomplishments and outcomes of the pilot 

3 program and any recommendations relating to achieving 

4 the customer service standards and performance measures 

5 established under section 3. 

6 (e) SUPPORT.—The Administrator of General Serv7 ices shall provide administrative and other support in 

8 order to implement the pilot program under this section. 

9 The heads of agencies shall, as appropriate and to the ex10 tent permitted by law, provide at the request of the Direc11 tor of the Office of Management and Budget up to 2 per12 sonnel authorizations who have expertise in change man13 agement, process improvement, and information tech14 nology innovation to support the pilot program. 

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

16 pilot program shall terminate 2 years after the date of 

17 enactment of this Act. 

18 SEC. 5. RETIREMENT REPORTING. 

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

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

21 5, United States Code. 

22 (b) REPORTS.— 

23 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para24 graph (2) and not later than 30 days after the date 

25 of enactment of this Act, and every month thereVerDate Mar 15 2010 03:52 Apr 27, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1660.IH H1660

smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
7 

•HR 1660 IH

1 after, the Director of the Office of Personnel Man2 agement shall submit to Congress and the Comp3 troller General of the United States, and issue pub4 licly (including on the website of the Office of Per5 sonnel Management), a report that— 

6 (A) for each agency, evaluates the timeli7 ness, completeness, and accuracy of information 

8 submitted by the agency relating to employees 

9 of the agency who are retiring; and 

10 (B) indicates— 

11 (i) the total number of applications 

12 for retirement benefits, lump sum death 

13 benefits, court ordered benefits, phased re14 tirement, and disability retirement that are 

15 pending action by the Office of Personnel 

16 Management; and 

17 (ii) the number of months each such 

18 application has been pending. 

19 (2) SUSPENSION OF REPORTING REQUIRE20 MENT.—Paragraph (1) shall not apply to the Direc21 tor of the Office of Personnel Management for any 

22 month immediately following a 3-year period in 

23 which there are no applications described in para24 graph (1)(B) that have been pending for more than 

25 60 days. 


smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
8 

•HR 1660 IH

1 (c) MODERNIZATION TIMELINE.—The Director of 

2 the Office of Personnel Management shall establish— 

3 (1) a timetable for the completion of each com4 ponent of the retirement systems modernization 

5 project of the Office of Personnel Management, in6 cluding all data elements required for accurate com7 pletion of adjudication; and 

8 (2) the date by which all Federal payroll proc9 essing entities will electronically transmit all per10 sonnel data to the Office of Personnel Management. 

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

12 Management shall include a detailed statement regarding 

13 the progress of the Office of Personnel Management in 

14 completing the retirement systems modernization project 

15 of the Office of Personnel Management and recommenda16 tions to Congress regarding the additional resources need17 ed to fully implement the retirement systems moderniza18 tion project of the Office of Personnel Management in 

19 each budget request of the Office of Personnel Manage20 ment submitted as part of the preparation of the budget 

21 of the President submitted to Congress under section 

22 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code. 


smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
9 

•HR 1660 IH

1 SEC. 6. NO INCREASE IN EXPENDITURES. 

2 No additional funds are authorized to carry out this 

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

4 authorized or appropriated. 

Æ 


smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with BILLS