II 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3455 

To require the establishment of customer service standards for Federal 

agencies. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 30, 2012 

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 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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

5 Service Improvement Act of 2012’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 

8 (1) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’— 


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1 (A) has the meaning given the term ‘‘Exec2 utive agency’’ under section 105 of title 5, 

3 United States Code; and 

4 (B) does not include an Executive agency 

5 if the President determines that this Act should 

6 not apply to the Executive agency for national 

7 security reasons. 

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

9 respect to an agency— 

10 (A) means any individual or entity to 

11 which the agency provides services or informa12 tion; and 

13 (B) includes a business, a State or local 

14 government, another agency, and Congress. 

15 SEC. 3. DEVELOPMENT OF PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND 

16 STANDARDS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE PRO17 VIDED BY AGENCIES. 

18 (a) REQUIREMENT.— 

19 (1) PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND STAND20 ARDS.—The Director of the Office of Management 

21 and Budget shall develop— 

22 (A) performance measures to determine 

23 whether agencies are providing high-quality, 

24 timely customer service and improving service 

25 delivery to customers of the agencies; and 


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1 (B) standards to be met by agencies in 

2 order to provide high-quality customer service 

3 and improve service delivery to customers of the 

4 agencies, including— 

5 (i) specific milestones and perform6 ance targets for continuous service im7 provements and efforts to modernize serv8 ice delivery; and 

9 (ii) where appropriate, target response 

10 times for telephone calls, electronic mail, 

11 mail, benefit processing, and payments. 

12 (2) REQUIREMENT TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT

13 CERTAIN INFORMATION.—The standards under 

14 paragraph (1) shall be developed after taking into 

15 account the information collected by agencies under 

16 subsection (b). 

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

18 agency shall collect information from customers of the 

19 agency regarding the quality of customer service provided 

20 by the agency. Each agency shall include the information 

21 collected under this subsection in the performance report 

22 made available by the agency under section 1116 of title 

23 31, United States Code. 

24 (c) ANNUAL PERFORMANCE UPDATE.—The Director 

25 of the Office of Management and Budget shall include 


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1 achievements by agencies in meeting the customer service 

2 performance measures and standards developed under 

3 subsection (a) in each update on agency performance re4 quired under section 1116 of title 31, United States Code. 

5 SEC. 4. IMPLEMENTATION OF CUSTOMER SERVICE STAND6 ARDS. 

7 (a) SERVICE IMPROVEMENT OFFICER.—The head of 

8 each agency shall designate an employee to be the service 

9 improvement officer of the agency, who shall be respon10 sible for implementing the customer service standards de11 veloped under section 3 and the agency requirements 

12 under subsection (b). 

13 (b) AGENCY REQUIREMENTS.— 

14 (1) GUIDELINES AND CONTACT INFORMA15 TION.—The head of each agency, acting through the 

16 service improvement officer of the agency, shall— 

17 (A) issue guidelines to implement the cus18 tomer service standards developed under section 

19 3 within the agency, including specific prin20 ciples of customer service applicable to the 

21 agency, which shall include where appropriate— 

22 (i) target call wait times during peak 

23 and non-peak hours; 


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1 (ii) target response times for cor2 respondence, both by mail and electronic 

3 mail; 

4 (iii) procedures for ensuring all appli5 cable metrics are incorporated into service 

6 agreements with nongovernmental individ7 uals and entities; and 

8 (iv) target response times for proc9 essing benefits and making payments; and 

10 (B) publish customer service contact infor11 mation, including a mailing address, telephone 

12 number, and email address. 

13 (2) AVAILABILITY.—The head of each agency, 

14 acting through the service improvement officer of 

15 the agency, shall make the guidelines and the cus16 tomer service contact information required under 

17 this subsection available on the website of the agen18 cy. 

19 SEC. 5. SERVICE IMPROVEMENT UNIT PILOT. 

20 (a) ESTABLISHED.—The Deputy Director of Man21 agement shall establish a pilot program, to be known as 

22 the Service Improvement Unit Pilot Program (in this sec23 tion referred to as the ‘‘pilot program’’), to provide assist24 ance to agencies that do not meet the customer service 


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1 standards and performance measures established under 

2 section 3. 

3 (b) PERSONNEL.—The heads of agencies with exper4 tise in change management, process improvement, and in5 formation technology innovation shall detail employees to 

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

7 program, based on the expertise and skills required to ad8 dress service improvement goals. 

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

10 the Office of Management and Budget shall work with 

11 agencies that are not meeting the customer service stand12 ards and performance measures established under section 

13 3 to improve and modernize service delivery to develop so14 lutions, including— 

15 (1) evaluating the efforts of the agency to im16 prove service delivery; 

17 (2) developing a plan to improve within existing 

18 resources and by drawing on expertise and assist19 ance from other agencies (including the Office of 

20 Management and Budget) where necessary; 

21 (3) monitoring implementation by the agency of 

22 the plan developed under paragraph (2) until the 

23 customer service standards and performance meas24 ures are met; and 


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1 (4) submitting to the Director of Office of Man2 agement and Budget monthly reports on the 

3 progress being made to improve service at the agen4 cy until the customer service standards are met. 

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

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

7 Management and Budget shall submit to Congress a re8 port on the accomplishments and outcomes of the pilot 

9 program and any recommendations relating to achieving 

10 the customer service standards and performance measures 

11 established under section 3. 

12 (e) 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. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL. 

16 Compliance with the customer service standards de17 veloped under this Act shall be included in the perform18 ance appraisal systems described in section 5307(d) of 

19 title 5, United States Code. 

20 SEC. 7. RETIREMENT REPORTING. 

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

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

23 5, United States Code. 

24 (b) REPORTS.—Not later than 30 days after the date 

25 of enactment of this Act, and every month thereafter, the 


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1 Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall sub2 mit to Congress, the Comptroller General of the United 

3 States, and issue publicly (including on the website of the 

4 Office of Personnel Management) a report that— 

5 (1) for each agency, evaluates the timeliness, 

6 completeness, and accuracy of information submitted 

7 by the agency relating to employees of the agency 

8 who are retiring; and 

9 (2) indicates— 

10 (A) the total number of applications for re11 tirement benefits that are pending action by the 

12 Office of Personnel Management; and 

13 (B) the number of months each such appli14 cation has been pending. 

15 (c) MODERNIZATION TIMELINE.—The Director of 

16 the Office of Personnel Management shall establish— 

17 (1) a timetable for the completion of each com18 ponent of the retirement systems modernization 

19 project of the Office of Personnel Management, in20 cluding all data elements required for accurate com21 pletion of adjudication; and 

22 (2) the date by which all Federal payroll proc23 essing entities will electronically transmit all per24 sonnel data to the Office of Personnel Management. 


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

2 Management shall include a detailed statement regarding 

3 the progress of the Office of Personnel Management in 

4 completing the retirement systems modernization project 

5 of the Office of Personnel Management in each budget re6 quest of the Office of Personnel Management submitted 

7 as part of the preparation of the budget of the President 

8 submitted to Congress under section 1105(a) of title 31, 

9 United States Code. 

10 SEC. 8. NO INCREASE IN EXPENDITURES. 

11 It is the sense of Congress that no additional funds 

12 should be appropriated to carry out this Act. 

Æ 


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