IIB 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1660 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
AUGUST 1, 2013 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs 
AN ACT 
To require the establishment of Federal customer service 
standards and to improve the service provided by Federal 
agencies. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Government Customer 
Service Improvement Act of 2013’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’— 
(A) means an Executive agency (as defined 
under section 105 of title 5, United States 
Code) that provides significant services directly 
to the public or other entity; and 
(B) does not include an Executive agency 
if the President determines that this Act should 
not apply to the Executive agency for national 
security reasons. 
(2) CUSTOMER.—The term ‘‘customer’’, with 
respect to an agency, means any individual or entity 
that is directly served by an agency. 
SEC. 3. DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMER SERVICE STAND-
ARDS. 
(a) GOVERNMENT-WIDE STANDARDS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget shall develop Government- 
wide standards for customer service delivery, which 
shall be included in the Federal Government Per-
formance Plan required under section 1115 of title 
31, United States Code. 
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(2) REQUIREMENTS.—The standards developed 
under paragraph (1) shall include— 
(A) Government-wide goals for continuous 
service improvements and efforts to modernize 
service delivery; and 
(B) where appropriate, Government-wide 
target response times for telephone calls, elec-
tronic mail, mail, benefit processing, and pay-
ments. 
(b) AGENCY STANDARDS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Performance Improve-
ment Officer for each agency shall establish cus-
tomer service standards in accordance with the Gov-
ernment-wide standards developed under subsection 
(a), which shall be included in the Agency Perform-
ance Plans required under section 1115 of title 31, 
United States Code. 
(2) REQUIREMENTS.—Agency standards estab-
lished under paragraph (1) shall include, if appro-
priate— 
(A) target call wait times during peak and 
non-peak hours; 
(B) target response times for correspond-
ence, both by mail and electronic mail; 
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(C) procedures for ensuring all applicable 
metrics are incorporated into service agree-
ments with nongovernmental individuals and 
entities; 
(D) target response times for processing 
benefits and making payments; and 
(E) recommendations for effective publica-
tion of customer service contact information, in-
cluding a mailing address, telephone number, 
and email address. 
(c) CUSTOMER SERVICE INPUT.— 
(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Director of the Of-
fice of Management and Budget shall establish a 
Customer Service Feedback Pilot Program. The 
pilot program shall include participation by the In-
ternal Revenue Service and a minimum of two addi-
tional agencies selected by the Director and shall 
continue for a period of at least three years. The Di-
rector shall require participating agencies to imple-
ment a customer service feedback system to collect 
information from customers of the agency regarding 
the quality of customer service provided by the agen-
cy, including— 
(A) information on the extent to which 
agency performance complies with the Govern-
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ment-wide standards developed under sub-
section (a); and 
(B) feedback on the quality of customer 
service provided by the agency employee or em-
ployees with whom the customer interacted. 
(2) LIMITATION.—An agency may not publish 
or make publically available information collected 
under the feedback system that is specific to a 
named employee. 
(3) ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION
IN
PERFORM-
ANCE REPORT.—In developing the performance re-
port made available by the agency under section 
1116 of title 31, United States Code, each agency— 
(A) shall include the information collected 
under this subsection; and 
(B) may include aggregate data collected 
under paragraph (1)(B) without including 
names of specific agency employees. 
(4) REPORT TO CONGRESS ON CUSTOMER SERV-
ICE
FEEDBACK
PILOT
PROGRAM.—Not later than 
two years after the implementation of the Customer 
Service Feedback Pilot Program established under 
this subsection, the Comptroller General shall sub-
mit to Congress a report assessing the pilot program 
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and a recommendation on whether such program 
should be expanded Government-wide. 
(d) ANNUAL PERFORMANCE UPDATE.—The Director 
of the Office of Management and Budget shall include 
achievements by agencies in meeting the customer service 
performance standards developed under subsection (a) in 
each update on agency performance required under section 
1116 of title 31, United States Code. 
SEC. 4. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL. 
Compliance with customer service standards devel-
oped under this Act shall be included in employee ap-
praisal systems establish by agencies, including the per-
formance appraisal systems referred to in chapter 43 of 
title 5, United States Code. 
SEC. 5. SERVICE IMPROVEMENT UNIT PILOT PROGRAM. 
(a) ESTABLISHED.—The Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget shall establish a pilot program, 
to be known as the Service Improvement Unit Pilot Pro-
gram (in this section referred to as the ‘‘pilot program’’), 
to provide assistance to agencies that do not meet the Gov-
ernment-wide standards developed under section 3. 
(b) PERSONNEL.—The heads of agencies with exper-
tise in change management, process improvement, and in-
formation technology innovation shall detail employees to 
the Office of Management and Budget to work on the pilot 
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program, based on the expertise and skills required to ad-
dress service improvement goals. 
(c) RESPONSIBILITIES.—Under the pilot program, 
the Office of Management and Budget shall work with 
agencies that are not meeting the customer service stand-
ards developed under section 3 to improve and modernize 
service delivery to develop solutions, including— 
(1) evaluating the efforts of the agency to im-
prove service delivery; 
(2) developing a plan to improve within existing 
resources and by drawing on expertise and assist-
ance from other agencies (including the Office of 
Management and Budget) where necessary; 
(3) monitoring implementation by the agency of 
the plan developed under paragraph (2) until the 
customer service standards are met; and 
(4) submitting to the Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget monthly reports on the 
progress being made to improve service at the agen-
cy until the customer service standards are met. 
(d) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 
of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget shall submit to Congress a re-
port on the accomplishments and outcomes of the pilot 
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program and any recommendations relating to achieving 
the customer service standards developed under section 3. 
(e) SUPPORT.—The Administrator of General Serv-
ices shall provide administrative and other support in 
order to implement the pilot program under this section. 
The heads of agencies shall, as appropriate and to the ex-
tent permitted by law, provide at the request of the Direc-
tor of the Office of Management and Budget up to 2 per-
sonnel authorizations who have expertise in change man-
agement, process improvement, and information tech-
nology innovation to support the pilot program. 
(f) TERMINATION.—The authority to carry out the 
pilot program shall terminate 2 years after the date of 
enactment of this Act. 
SEC. 6. RETIREMENT REPORTING. 
(a) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘agency’’ 
has the meaning given that term in section 551 of title 
5, United States Code. 
(b) REPORTS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graph (2) and not later than 90 days after the date 
of enactment of this Act, and every month there-
after, the Director of the Office of Personnel Man-
agement shall submit to Congress and the Comp-
troller General of the United States, and issue pub-
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licly (including on the website of the Office of Per-
sonnel Management), a report that— 
(A) for each agency, evaluates the timeli-
ness, completeness, and accuracy of information 
submitted by the agency relating to employees 
of the agency who are retiring; and 
(B) indicates— 
(i) the total number of applications 
for retirement benefits, lump sum death 
benefits, court ordered benefits, phased re-
tirement, and disability retirement that are 
pending action by the Office of Personnel 
Management; and 
(ii) the number of months each such 
application has been pending. 
(2) SUSPENSION
OF
REPORTING
REQUIRE-
MENT.—Paragraph (1) shall not apply to the Direc-
tor of the Office of Personnel Management for any 
month immediately following an 18-month period in 
which the average processing time of applications de-
scribed in paragraph (1)(B) reaches 90 days or less. 
(c) MODERNIZATION TIMELINE.—The Director of 
the Office of Personnel Management shall establish— 
(1) a timetable for the completion of each com-
ponent of the customer-focused retirement proc-
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essing system of the Office of Personnel Manage-
ment, including all data elements required for accu-
rate completion of adjudication; and 
(2) the date by which all Federal payroll proc-
essing entities will electronically transmit all per-
sonnel data to the Office of Personnel Management. 
(d) BUDGET REQUEST.—The Office of Personnel 
Management shall include a detailed statement regarding 
the progress of the Office of Personnel Management in 
completing the customer-focused retirement processing 
system of the Office of Personnel Management in each 
budget request of the Office of Personnel Management 
submitted as part of the preparation of the budget of the 
President submitted to Congress under section 1105(a) of 
title 31, United States Code. 
SEC. 7. NO INCREASE IN EXPENDITURES. 
No additional funds are authorized to carry out this 
Act. This Act shall be carried out using amounts otherwise 
authorized or appropriated. 
Passed the House of Representatives July 31, 2013. 
Attest: 
KAREN L. HAAS, 
Clerk. 
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