II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 760 

To require the establishment of Federal customer service standards and 

to improve the service provided by Federal agencies. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 18, 2013 

Mr. WARNER (for himself and Mr. JOHNSON of Wisconsin) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

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’’— 


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1 (A) means an Executive agency (as defined 

2 under section 105 of title 5, United States 

3 Code) that provides significant services directly 

4 to the public or other entity; and 

5 (B) does not include an Executive agency 

6 if the President determines that this Act should 

7 not apply to the Executive agency for national 

8 security reasons. 

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

10 respect to an agency, means any individual or entity 

11 that is directly served by an agency. 

12 SEC. 3. DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMER SERVICE STAND13 ARDS. 

14 (a) GOVERNMENT-WIDE STANDARDS.— 

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

16 Management and Budget shall develop Government17 wide standards for customer service delivery, which 

18 shall be included in the Federal Government Per19 formance Plan required under section 1115 of title 

20 31, United States Code. 

21 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—The standards developed 

22 under paragraph (1) shall include— 

23 (A) Government-wide goals for continuous 

24 service improvements and efforts to modernize 

25 service delivery; and 


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1 (B) where appropriate, Government-wide 

2 target response times for telephone calls, elec3 tronic mail, mail, benefit processing, and pay4 ments. 

5 (b) AGENCY STANDARDS.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Chief Performance Offi7 cer for each agency shall establish customer service 

8 standards in accordance with the Government-wide 

9 standards established under subsection (a), which 

10 shall be included in the Agency Performance Plans 

11 required under section 1115 of title 31, United 

12 States Code. 

13 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—Agency standards estab14 lished under paragraph (1) shall include, if appro15 priate— 

16 (A) target call wait times during peak and 

17 non-peak hours; 

18 (B) target response times for correspond19 ence, both by mail and electronic mail; 

20 (C) procedures for ensuring all applicable 

21 metrics are incorporated into service agree22 ments with nongovernmental individuals and 

23 entities; 

24 (D) target response times for processing 

25 benefits and making payments; and 


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1 (E) recommendations for effective publica2 tion of customer service contact information, in3 cluding a mailing address, telephone number, 

4 and email address. 

5 (c) CUSTOMER SERVICE INPUT.—The Performance 

6 Improvement Officer for each agency shall collect informa7 tion from customers of the agency regarding the quality 

8 of customer service provided by the agency. Each agency 

9 shall include the information collected under this sub10 section in the performance report made available by the 

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

12 (d) ANNUAL PERFORMANCE UPDATE.—The Director 

13 of the Office of Management and Budget shall include 

14 achievements by agencies in meeting the customer service 

15 performance measures and standards developed under 

16 subsection (a) in each update on agency performance re17 quired under section 1116 of title 31, United States Code. 

18 SEC. 4. SERVICE IMPROVEMENT UNIT PILOT PROGRAM. 

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

20 Management and Budget shall establish a pilot program, 

21 to be known as the Service Improvement Unit Pilot Pro22 gram (in this section referred to as the ‘‘pilot program’’), 

23 to provide assistance to agencies that do not meet the Gov24 ernment-wide standards established under section 3. 


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1 (b) PERSONNEL.—The heads of agencies with exper2 tise in change management, process improvement, and in3 formation technology innovation shall detail employees to 

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

5 program, based on the expertise and skills required to ad6 dress service improvement goals. 

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

8 the Office of Management and Budget shall work with 

9 agencies that are not meeting the customer service stand10 ards and performance measures established under section 

11 3 to improve and modernize service delivery to develop so12 lutions, including— 

13 (1) evaluating the efforts of the agency to im14 prove service delivery; 

15 (2) developing a plan to improve within existing 

16 resources and by drawing on expertise and assist17 ance from other agencies (including the Office of 

18 Management and Budget) where necessary; 

19 (3) monitoring implementation by the agency of 

20 the plan developed under paragraph (2) until the 

21 customer service standards and performance meas22 ures are met; and 

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

24 Management and Budget monthly reports on the 


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1 progress being made to improve service at the agen2 cy until the customer service standards are met. 

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

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

5 Management and Budget shall submit to Congress a re6 port on the accomplishments and outcomes of the pilot 

7 program and any recommendations relating to achieving 

8 the customer service standards and performance measures 

9 established under section 3. 

10 (e) SUPPORT.—The Administrator of General Serv11 ices shall provide administrative and other support in 

12 order to implement the pilot program under this section. 

13 The heads of agencies shall, as appropriate and to the ex14 tent permitted by law, provide at the request of the Direc15 tor of the Office of Management and Budget up to 2 per16 sonnel authorizations who have expertise in change man17 agement, process improvement, and information tech18 nology innovation to support the pilot program. 

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

20 pilot program shall terminate 2 years after the date of 

21 enactment of this Act. 

22 SEC. 5. RETIREMENT REPORTING. 

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

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

25 5, United States Code. 


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1 (b) REPORTS.— 

2 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para3 graph (2) and not later than 30 days after the date 

4 of enactment of this Act, and every month there5 after, the Director of the Office of Personnel Man6 agement shall submit to Congress and the Comp7 troller General of the United States, and issue pub8 licly (including on the Web site of the Office of Per9 sonnel Management), a report that— 

10 (A) for each agency, evaluates the timeli11 ness, completeness, and accuracy of information 

12 submitted by the agency relating to employees 

13 of the agency who are retiring; and 

14 (B) indicates— 

15 (i) the total number of applications 

16 for retirement benefits, lump sum death 

17 benefits, court ordered benefits, phased re18 tirement, and disability retirement that are 

19 pending action by the Office of Personnel 

20 Management; and 

21 (ii) the number of months each such 

22 application has been pending. 

23 (2) SUSPENSION OF REPORTING REQUIRE24 MENT.—Paragraph (1) shall not apply to the Direc25 tor of the Office of Personnel Management for any 


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1 month immediately following a 3-year period in 

2 which there are no applications described in para3 graph (1)(B) that have been pending for more than 

4 60 days. 

5 (c) MODERNIZATION TIMELINE.—The Director of 

6 the Office of Personnel Management shall establish— 

7 (1) a timetable for the completion of each com8 ponent of the retirement systems modernization 

9 project of the Office of Personnel Management, in10 cluding all data elements required for accurate com11 pletion of adjudication; and 

12 (2) the date by which all Federal payroll proc13 essing entities will electronically transmit all per14 sonnel data to the Office of Personnel Management. 

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

16 Management shall include a detailed statement regarding 

17 the progress of the Office of Personnel Management in 

18 completing the retirement systems modernization project 

19 of the Office of Personnel Management and recommenda20 tions to Congress regarding the additional resources need21 ed to fully implement the retirement systems moderniza22 tion project of the Office of Personnel Management in 

23 each budget request of the Office of Personnel Manage24 ment submitted as part of the preparation of the budget 


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1 of the President submitted to Congress under section 

2 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code. 

3 SEC. 6. NO INCREASE IN EXPENDITURES. 

4 It is the sense of Congress that no additional funds 

5 should be appropriated to carry out this Act. 

Æ 


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