IIB 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 538 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 

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

Governmental Affairs 

AN ACT 

To require the establishment of customer service standards 

for 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’’. 

4 SEC. 2. DEVELOPMENT OF PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND 

5 STANDARDS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE PRO6 VIDED BY FEDERAL AGENCIES. 

7 (a) REQUIREMENT.— 

8 (1) PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND STAND9 ARDS.—The Director of the Office of Management 

10 and Budget shall develop— 

11 (A) performance measures to determine 

12 whether Federal agencies are providing high13 quality customer service and improving service 

14 delivery to their customers; and 

15 (B) standards to be met by Federal agen16 cies in order to provide high-quality customer 

17 service and improve service delivery to their 

18 customers. 

19 (2) REQUIREMENT TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT

20 CERTAIN INFORMATION.—The standards under 

21 paragraph (1) shall be developed after taking into 

22 account the information collected by Federal agen23 cies under subsection (b). 

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

25 Federal agency shall collect information from its cus26 tomers regarding the quality of customer services provided 


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1 by the agency. Each Federal agency shall include this in2 formation in its performance report submitted under sec3 tion 1116 of title 31, United States Code. 

4 (c) ANNUAL PERFORMANCE UPDATE.—The Director 

5 of the Office of Management and Budget shall include 

6 achievements by Federal agencies in meeting customer 

7 service performance measures and standards developed 

8 under subsection (a) in each update on agency perform9 ance required under section 1116 of title 31, United 

10 States Code. 

11 SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF CUSTOMER SERVICE STAND12 ARDS. 

13 (a) CUSTOMER RELATIONS REPRESENTATIVE.—The 

14 head of each Federal agency shall designate an employee 

15 to be the customer relations representative of the agency. 

16 Such representative shall be responsible for implementing 

17 the customer service standards developed under section 2 

18 and the agency requirements under subsection (b). 

19 (b) AGENCY REQUIREMENTS.— 

20 (1) GUIDELINES AND CONTACT INFORMA21 TION.—The head of each Federal agency, acting 

22 through its customer relations representative, 

23 shall— 

24 (A) issue guidelines to implement the cus25 tomer service standards developed under section 


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1 2 within the agency, including specific prin2 ciples of customer service applicable to that 

3 agency; and 

4 (B) publish customer service contact infor5 mation, including a mailing address, telephone 

6 number, and e-mail address. 

7 (2) AVAILABILITY.—The guidelines and the 

8 customer service contact information required under 

9 this subsection shall be available on the agency’s 

10 public website. 

11 SEC. 4. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL. 

12 Compliance with customer service standards devel13 oped under this Act shall be included in the performance 

14 appraisal systems referred to in sections 4302(a) and 

15 4312 of title 5, United States Code. 

16 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 

17 In this Act: 

18 (1) The term ‘‘customer’’, with respect to a 

19 Federal agency, means any individual or entity, in20 cluding a business, State or local government, other 

21 Federal agency, or Congress, to which the agency 

22 provides services or information. 

23 (2) The term ‘‘Federal agency’’ has the mean24 ing given the term ‘‘Executive agency’’ by section 

25 105 of title 5, United States Code, except that the 


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1 term does not include an agency if the President de2 termines that this Act should not apply to the agen3 cy for national security reasons. 

4 SEC. 6. DEFICIT REDUCTION. 

5 Any savings or reductions in expenditures resulting 

6 from this Act shall be used to offset the costs of implemen7 tation of this Act, and any additional savings shall be used 

8 to reduce the deficit. 

Passed the House of Representatives September 11, 

2012. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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