[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 538 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Government Customer Service 
Improvement Act''.

SEC. 2. DEVELOPMENT OF PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND STANDARDS FOR CUSTOMER 
              SERVICE PROVIDED BY FEDERAL AGENCIES.

    (a) Requirement.--
            (1) Performance measures and standards.--The Director of 
        the Office of Management and Budget shall develop--
                    (A) performance measures to determine whether 
                Federal agencies are providing high-quality customer 
                service and improving service delivery to their 
                customers; and
                    (B) standards to be met by Federal agencies in 
                order to provide high-quality customer service and 
                improve service delivery to their customers.
            (2) Requirement to take into account certain information.--
        The standards under paragraph (1) shall be developed after 
        taking into account the information collected by Federal 
        agencies under subsection (b).
    (b) Customer Service Input.--The head of each Federal agency shall 
collect information from its customers regarding the quality of 
customer services provided by the agency. Each Federal agency shall 
include this information in its performance report submitted under 
section 1116 of title 31, United States Code.
    (c) Annual Performance Update.--The Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget shall include achievements by Federal agencies in 
meeting customer service performance measures and standards developed 
under subsection (a) in each update on agency performance required 
under section 1116 of title 31, United States Code.

SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARDS.

    (a) Customer Relations Representative.--The head of each Federal 
agency shall designate an employee to be the customer relations 
representative of the agency. Such representative shall be responsible 
for implementing the customer service standards developed under section 
2 and the agency requirements under subsection (b).
    (b) Agency Requirements.--
            (1) Guidelines and contact information.--The head of each 
        Federal agency, acting through its customer relations 
        representative, shall--
                    (A) issue guidelines to implement the customer 
                service standards developed under section 2 within the 
                agency, including specific principles of customer 
                service applicable to that agency; and
                    (B) publish customer service contact information, 
                including a mailing address, telephone number, and e-
                mail address.
            (2) Availability.--The guidelines and the customer service 
        contact information required under this subsection shall be 
        available on the agency's public website.

SEC. 4. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL.

    Compliance with customer service standards developed under this Act 
shall be included in the performance appraisal systems referred to in 
sections 4302(a) and 4312 of title 5, United States Code.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) The term ``customer'', with respect to a Federal 
        agency, means any individual or entity, including a business, 
        State or local government, other Federal agency, or Congress, 
        to which the agency provides services or information.
            (2) The term ``Federal agency'' has the meaning given the 
        term ``Executive agency'' by section 105 of title 5, United 
        States Code, except that the term does not include an agency if 
        the President determines that this Act should not apply to the 
        agency for national security reasons.

SEC. 6. DEFICIT REDUCTION.

    Any savings or reductions in expenditures resulting from this Act 
shall be used to offset the costs of implementation of this Act, and 
any additional savings shall be used to reduce the deficit.

            Passed the House of Representatives September 11, 2012.

            Attest:

                                                 KAREN L. HAAS,

                                                                 Clerk.