I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5402 

To require the establishment of Federal customer service standards, to improve the service and customer experience provided by Federal agencies, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 22, 2018 

Mr. LOUDERMILK (for himself and Mr. CONNOLLY) 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, to improve the service and customer experience provided by Federal agencies, and for other purposes. 

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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Government Customer Service Accountability and Im6 provement Act of 2018’’. 

7 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 

8 this Act is as follows: 


khammond on DSK30JT082PROD with BILLS
2 

•HR 5402 IH

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 

Sec. 2. Findings; sense of Congress. 

Sec. 3. Definitions. 

Sec. 4. Development of customer experience standards. 

Sec. 5. Service Improvement and Accountability Unit Pilot Program. 

Sec. 6. Effective date. 

1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

2 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) The Federal Government serves the people 

4 of the United States and should seek to continually 

5 improve public services. 

6 (2) The people of the United States deserve a 

7 Federal Government that provides efficient, effec8 tive, and high-quality services across multiple chan9 nels. 

10 (3) Many agencies, offices, programs, and Fed11 eral employees provide excellent service to individ12 uals, however, many functions of the Federal Gov13 ernment do not provide the customer service experi14 ence that individuals have come to expect from the 

15 private sector. 

16 (4) The lack of Federal Government customer 

17 service is an inveterate occurrence which has been 

18 attempted to be addressed through the actions of 

19 previous administrations including the Executive 

20 Order 12862, ‘‘Setting Customer Service Stand21 ards,’’ signed September 11, 1993, by President 

22 William J. Clinton and Executive Order 13571, 


khammond on DSK30JT082PROD with BILLS
3 

•HR 5402 IH

1 ‘‘Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Cus2 tomer Service,’’ signed April 27, 2011, by President 

3 Barack H. Obama. 

4 (5) According to the 2016 American Customer 

5 Satisfaction Index, the Federal Government ranks 

6 among the bottom of all industries in the United 

7 States in customer satisfaction. 

8 (6) Providing quality services to individuals im9 proves the confidence of the people of the United 

10 States in their Government. Such quality service is 

11 a necessary factor for agencies to fulfill their specific 

12 and clearly defined missions. 

13 (7) Improving service to individuals requires 

14 agencies to work across organizational boundaries, 

15 leverage technology, collect and share standardized 

16 data, and develop customer-centered mindsets and 

17 service strategies. 

18 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con19 gress that all agencies should strive to provide high-qual20 ity, courteous, effective, and efficient services to the people 

21 of the United States and seek to measure, collect, report, 

22 and use metrics relating to the experience of individuals 

23 interacting with agencies to continually improve services 

24 to the people of the United States. 


khammond on DSK30JT082PROD with BILLS
4 

•HR 5402 IH

1 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act: 

3 (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis4 trator’’ means the Administrator of General Serv5 ices. 

6 (2) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’— 

7 (A) has the meaning given that term under 

8 section 3502 of title 44, United States Code; 

9 and 

10 (B) does not include an agency the Presi11 dent excludes for national security reasons. 

12 (3) CUSTOMER.—The term ‘‘customer’’, with 

13 respect to an agency, means any individual or entity 

14 that is directly served by an agency, including a 

15 Congressional office. 

16 (4) CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.—The term ‘‘cus17 tomer experience’’ means the experience of an indi18 vidual with an agency related to any service the 

19 agency is required to perform in accordance with the 

20 mission of the agency that requires personal assist21 ance, interaction, or accessibility of the services and 

22 information provided by the agency. 

23 (5) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

24 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg25 et. 


khammond on DSK30JT082PROD with BILLS
5 

•HR 5402 IH

1 SEC. 4. DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE STAND2 ARDS. 

3 (a) SELECTION OF CERTAIN AGENCIES BY OMB.— 

4 Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment 

5 of this Act, the Director shall select certain agencies (in6 cluding at a minimum the Department of Veterans Af7 fairs, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Inter8 nal Revenue Service) to develop customer experience 

9 standards and performance plans for that agency. 

10 (b) AGENCY STANDARDS AND PERFORMANCE

11 PLANS.— 

12 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 months 

13 after the date on which the selection is made pursu14 ant to subsection (a), the senior accountable official 

15 for customer experience for each agency, in consulta16 tion with relevant agency program officials, shall de17 velop customer experience standards and perform18 ance plans, subject to approval by the head of the 

19 agency and the Director. 

20 (2) REQUIREMENTS FOR AGENCY CUSTOMER

21 EXPERIENCE STANDARDS AND PERFORMANCE

22 PLANS.—The customer experience standards and 

23 performance plans established paragraph (1) shall 

24 be— 


khammond on DSK30JT082PROD with BILLS
6 

•HR 5402 IH

1 (A) based on customer and market re2 search that identifies the aspects of service de3 livery that are most important to citizens; and 

4 (B) collected through both qualitative and 

5 quantitative research methods that incorporate 

6 voluntary feedback from citizens. 

7 (3) INCLUSION IN AGENCY PERFORMANCE

8 PLANS.—The approved standards and performance 

9 plans shall be included in the agency performance 

10 plans required under section 1115(b) of title 31, 

11 United States Code. 

12 (c) REQUIREMENT TO SUBMIT AND PUBLISH STAND13 ARDS AND PERFORMANCE PLANS.—Not later than 1 

14 month after the approval of the customer experience 

15 standards and performance plans required pursuant to 

16 subsection (b), the standards and plans shall be made pub17 licly available by the senior accountable official for cus18 tomer experience of the agency on the website of the rel19 evant agency. 

20 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE OF STANDARDS.—The cus21 tomer experience standards and performance plans devel22 oped under subsection (b) shall be effective upon publica23 tion in the agency performance plan pursuant to section 

24 1115(b) of title 31, United States Code. 


khammond on DSK30JT082PROD with BILLS
7 

•HR 5402 IH

1 SEC. 5. SERVICE IMPROVEMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY 

2 UNIT PILOT PROGRAM. 

3 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF PILOT PROGRAM.—Not 

4 later than 1 year after the date on which the customer 

5 experience standards and performance plans are published 

6 pursuant to section 4(c), the Director shall establish a 

7 pilot program, to be known as the Service Improvement 

8 and Accountability Unit Pilot Program (in this section re9 ferred to as the ‘‘pilot program’’), to provide assistance 

10 to an agency that does not meet the standards that apply 

11 to that agency under section 4. 

12 (b) PERSONNEL.—The Director shall work with the 

13 head of each agency to detail employees within the agency 

14 to work on the pilot program, based on the expertise and 

15 skills required to address service improvement goals. Any 

16 employee so detailed shall be done in accordance with the 

17 requirements in section 3341 of title 5, United States 

18 Code. 

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

20 the Office of Management and Budget shall work with any 

21 agency that does not meet the customer experience stand22 ards developed by that agency under section 4 to improve 

23 and modernize service delivery to develop solutions, includ24 ing the following: 

25 (1) Evaluating the efforts of the agency to im26 prove service delivery. 


khammond on DSK30JT082PROD with BILLS
8 

•HR 5402 IH

1 (2) Developing a plan with clearly defined 

2 short- and long-term goals to improve within exist3 ing resources and by drawing on expertise and as4 sistance from other agencies (including the Office of 

5 Management and Budget) where necessary. 

6 (3) Monitoring implementation by the agency of 

7 the plan developed under paragraph (2) until the 

8 customer service standards are met. 

9 (4) Submitting every 6 months to the Director 

10 of the Office of Management and Budget a report 

11 on the progress being made to improve service at the 

12 agency until the customer experience standards are 

13 met. 

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

15 on which the pilot program is implemented, and annually 

16 thereafter until the termination of the pilot program, the 

17 Director shall submit to the Committee on Oversight and 

18 Government Reform of the House of Representatives and 

19 the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 

20 Affairs of the Senate a report on the accomplishments and 

21 outcomes of the pilot program across all agencies in which 

22 it has been implemented and any recommendations for 

23 changes necessary achieve the customer experience stand24 ards developed under section 4. The report shall include— 


khammond on DSK30JT082PROD with BILLS
9 

•HR 5402 IH

1 (1) achievements by agencies in meeting the 

2 customer experience performance standards devel3 oped under section 4; and 

4 (2) an evaluation of the difficulties and lack of 

5 quality customer experience still prevalent. 

6 (e) SUPPORT.—The Administrator shall provide ad7 ministrative and other support in order to implement the 

8 pilot program under this section. The head of each agency 

9 shall, as appropriate and to the extent permitted by law, 

10 provide at the request of the Director up to 2 personnel 

11 authorizations who have expertise in change management, 

12 process improvement, project management, and informa13 tion technology innovation to support the pilot program. 

14 Such personnel may be the Inspector General. 

15 (f) PROGRAM CONTINUATION.—The pilot program 

16 shall be taken up for consideration of continuation or ter17 mination 5 years after the date of the enactment of this 

18 Act by the relevant committees of jurisdiction in the 

19 House of Representatives and the Senate. 

20 SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

21 This Act shall take effect 3 months after the date 

22 of the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


khammond on DSK30JT082PROD with BILLS