[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 855 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 855

 To provide for greater responsiveness by Federal agencies in contacts 
                with the public, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              June 9, 1997

Mr. Faircloth (for himself, Mr. Hagel, Mr. Shelby, and Mr. Hutchinson) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                   Committee on Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for greater responsiveness by Federal agencies in contacts 
                with the public, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FEDERAL AGENCY RESPONSIVENESS TO THE PUBLIC.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Responsive 
Government Act''.
    (b) Definitions.--In this Act, the term--
            (1) ``agency'' means an Executive agency as defined under 
        section 105 of title 5, United States Code;
            (2) ``office'' means each place of business that an agency 
        conducts official business of the United States, other than a 
        temporary location; and
            (3) ``service oriented office'' means an office where a 
        substantial part of agency business includes services provided 
        to the public through visits to the office by the public.
    (c) Agency Telephonic Communication With the Public.--Not later 
than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, each agency 
shall prescribe regulations that--
            (1) require each office of the agency which has contact 
        with the public to--
                    (A) ensure that the telephone number for the office 
                is published in an appropriate telephone directory 
                widely available to the local public;
                    (B)(i) provide a person to answer the telephone 
                line through which the office makes initial contact 
                with the public;
                    (ii) prohibit the use of any electronic, computer, 
                or mechanical device to answer such telephone line, 
                except in an office in which there is 1 employee; and
                    (iii) provide for the answering of such telephone 
                line until 5:00 p.m. (according to the time zone in 
                which the office is located) for each day that the 
                office is conducting official business; and
            (2) require all correspondence originating from the agency 
        to include the official telephone number of the person sending 
        the correspondence.
    (d) Accessibility of Parking at Service Oriented Offices.--To the 
greatest extent practicable and economically feasible, the head of each 
agency shall establish the location of each service oriented office in 
an area with parking facilities accessible to the public.
    (e) Prohibition of Computer Game Programs.--
            (1) Removal of existing computer game programs.--Not later 
        than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the head 
        of each agency shall take such actions as necessary to remove 
        any computer game program not required for the official 
        business of the agency from any agency computer equipment.
            (2) Prohibition of installation of computer game 
        programs.--The head of each agency shall prohibit the 
        installation of any computer game program not required for the 
        official business of the agency into any agency computer 
        equipment.
            (3) Prohibition of agency acceptance of computer equipment 
        with computer game programs.--
                    (A) Prohibition.--Title III of the Federal Property 
                and Administrative Services Act of 1949 is amended by 
                adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 317. MISCELLANEOUS PROHIBITIONS AND OTHER RESTRICTIONS.

    ``The head of an executive agency may not accept delivery of 
computer equipment that is loaded with game programs not required for 
an official purpose under the terms of the contract under which the 
equipment is delivered.''.
                    (B) Clerical amendment.--The table of contents in 
                section 2(b) of such Act is amended by inserting after 
                the item relating to section 316 the following:

``Sec. 317. Miscellaneous prohibitions and other restrictions.''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this paragraph shall 
take effect 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act.
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