IB 

Union Calendar No. 382 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 538 

[Report No. 112–534] 

To require the establishment of customer service standards for Federal 

agencies. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 8, 2011 

Mr. CUELLAR introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

JUNE 15, 2012 

Additional sponsors: Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee, and Mr. 

GOODLATTE

JUNE 15, 2012 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 

House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on February 8, 2011] 


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•HR 538 RH

A BILL 

To require the establishment of customer service standards 

for Federal agencies. 


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•HR 538 RH

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’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEVELOPMENT OF PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND 

7 STANDARDS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE PRO8 VIDED BY FEDERAL AGENCIES. 

9 (a) REQUIREMENT.— 

10 (1) PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND STAND11 ARDS.—The Director of the Office of Management and 

12 Budget shall develop— 

13 (A) performance measures to determine 

14 whether Federal agencies are providing high15 quality customer service and improving service 

16 delivery to their customers; and 

17 (B) standards to be met by Federal agencies 

18 in order to provide high-quality customer service 

19 and improve service delivery to their customers. 

20 (2) REQUIREMENT TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT CER21 TAIN INFORMATION.—The standards under paragraph 

22 (1) shall be developed after taking into account the in23 formation collected by Federal agencies under sub24 section (b). 


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1 (b) CUSTOMER SERVICE INPUT.—The head of each 

2 Federal agency shall collect information from its customers 

3 regarding the quality of customer services provided by the 

4 agency. Each Federal agency shall include this information 

5 in its performance report submitted under section 1116 of 

6 title 31, United States Code. 

7 (c) ANNUAL PERFORMANCE UPDATE.—The Director of 

8 the Office of Management and Budget shall include achieve9 ments by Federal agencies in meeting customer service per10 formance measures and standards developed under sub11 section (a) in each update on agency performance required 

12 under section 1116 of title 31, United States Code. 

13 SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF CUSTOMER SERVICE STAND14 ARDS. 

15 (a) CUSTOMER RELATIONS REPRESENTATIVE.—The 

16 head of each Federal agency shall designate an employee 

17 to be the customer relations representative of the agency. 

18 Such representative shall be responsible for implementing 

19 the customer service standards developed under section 2 

20 and the agency requirements under subsection (b). 

21 (b) AGENCY REQUIREMENTS.— 

22 (1) GUIDELINES AND CONTACT INFORMATION.— 

23 The head of each Federal agency, acting through its 

24 customer relations representative, shall— 


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1 (A) issue guidelines to implement the cus2 tomer service standards developed under section 

3 2 within the agency, including specific prin4 ciples of customer service applicable to that agen5 cy; and 

6 (B) publish customer service contact infor7 mation, including a mailing address, telephone 

8 number, and e-mail address. 

9 (2) AVAILABILITY.—The guidelines and the cus10 tomer service contact information required under this 

11 subsection shall be available on the agency’s public 

12 website. 

13 SEC. 4. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL. 

14 Compliance with customer service standards developed 

15 under this Act shall be included in the performance ap16 praisal systems referred to in sections 4302(a) and 4312 

17 of title 5, United States Code. 

18 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 

19 In this Act: 

20 (1) The term ‘‘customer’’, with respect to a Fed21 eral agency, means any individual or entity, includ22 ing a business, State or local government, other Fed23 eral agency, or Congress, to which the agency provides 

24 services or information. 


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1 (2) The term ‘‘Federal agency’’ has the meaning 

2 given the term ‘‘Executive agency’’ by section 105 of 

3 title 5, United States Code, except that the term does 

4 not include an agency if the President determines 

5 that this Act should not apply to the agency for na6 tional security reasons. 

7 SEC. 6. FUNDING FROM EXISTING BUDGETS. 

8 Federal agencies shall implement this Act from funds 

9 available to the agency and may reprogram funds as nec10 essary for such purposes. 

11 SEC. 7. DEFICIT REDUCTION. 

12 Any savings or reductions in expenditures resulting 

13 from this Act shall be used to offset the costs of implementa14 tion of this Act, and any additional savings shall be used 

15 to reduce the deficit. 


TKELLEY on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS

TKELLEY on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
Union Calendar No. 382 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 538 

[Report No. 112–534] 

A BILL 

To require the establishment of customer service 

standards for Federal agencies. 

JUNE 15, 2012 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Comand ordered to be printed mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 


TKELLEY on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS