1.This Act may be cited as
the Government Customer Service
Improvement Act of 2012
.
2.In this Act:
(1)The
term agency—
(A)has the meaning
given the term Executive agency under section 105 of title 5,
United States Code; 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)The
term customer, with respect to an agency—
(A)means any
individual or entity to which the agency provides services or information;
and
(B)includes a
business, a State or local government, another agency, and Congress.
3.Development of
performance measures and standards for customer service provided by
agencies
(a)
(1)Performance
measures and standardsThe Director of the Office of Management
and Budget shall develop—
(A)performance
measures to determine whether agencies are providing high-quality, timely
customer service and improving service delivery to customers of the agencies;
and
(B)standards to be
met by agencies in order to provide high-quality customer service and improve
service delivery to customers of the agencies, including—
(i)specific
milestones and performance targets for continuous service improvements and
efforts to modernize service delivery; and
(ii)where
appropriate, target response times for telephone calls, electronic mail, mail,
benefit processing, and payments.
(2)Requirement to
take into account certain informationThe standards under
paragraph (1) shall be developed after taking into account the information
collected by agencies under subsection (b).
(b)The head of each agency shall collect information
from customers of the agency regarding the quality of customer service provided
by the agency. Each agency shall include the information collected under this
subsection in the performance report made available by the agency under section
1116 of title 31, United States Code.
(c)Annual
performance updateThe Director of the Office of Management and
Budget shall include achievements by agencies in meeting the 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.
4.Implementation
of customer service standards
(a)Service
improvement officerThe head of each agency shall designate an
employee to be the service improvement officer of the agency, who shall be
responsible for implementing the customer service standards developed under
section 3 and the agency requirements under subsection (b).
(b)
(1)Guidelines and
contact informationThe head of each agency, acting through the
service improvement officer of the agency, shall—
(A)issue guidelines
to implement the customer service standards developed under section 3 within
the agency, including specific principles of customer service applicable to the
agency, which shall include where appropriate—
(i)target call wait
times during peak and non-peak hours;
(ii)target response
times for correspondence, both by mail and electronic mail;
(iii)procedures for
ensuring all applicable metrics are incorporated into service agreements with
nongovernmental individuals and entities; and
(iv)target response
times for processing benefits and making payments; and
(B)publish customer
service contact information, including a mailing address, telephone number, and
email address.
(2)The
head of each agency, acting through the service improvement officer of the
agency, shall make the guidelines and the customer service contact information
required under this subsection available on the website of the agency.
5.Service
improvement unit pilot
(a)The
Deputy Director of Management shall establish a pilot program, to be known as
the Service Improvement Unit Pilot Program (in this section referred to as the
pilot program
), to provide assistance to agencies that do not
meet the customer service standards and performance measures established under
section 3.
(b)The
heads of agencies with expertise in change management, process improvement, and
information technology innovation shall detail employees to the Office of
Management and Budget to work on the pilot program, based on the expertise and
skills required to address service improvement goals.
(c)Under
the pilot program, the Office of Management and Budget shall work with agencies
that are not meeting the customer service standards and performance measures
established under section 3 to improve and modernize service delivery to
develop solutions, including—
(1)evaluating the
efforts of the agency to improve service delivery;
(2)developing a plan
to improve within existing resources and by drawing on expertise and assistance
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 and performance measures are met; and
(4)submitting to the
Director of Office of Management and Budget monthly reports on the progress
being made to improve service at the agency until the customer service
standards are met.
(d)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 report on the accomplishments and outcomes of the
pilot program and any recommendations relating to achieving the customer
service standards and performance measures established under section 3.
(e)The
authority to carry out the pilot program shall terminate 2 years after the date
of enactment of this Act.
6.Compliance with the
customer service standards developed under this Act shall be included in the
performance appraisal systems described in section 5307(d) of title 5, United
States Code.
7.
(a)In
this section, the term agency has the meaning given that term in
section 551 of title 5, United States Code.
(b)Not
later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, and every month
thereafter, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall submit to
Congress, the Comptroller General of the United States, and issue publicly
(including on the website of the Office of Personnel Management) a report
that—
(1)for each agency,
evaluates the timeliness, completeness, and accuracy of information submitted
by the agency relating to employees of the agency who are retiring; and
(2)indicates—
(A)the total number
of applications for retirement benefits that are pending action by the Office
of Personnel Management; and
(B)the number of
months each such application has been pending.
(c)The Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall
establish—
(1)a timetable for
the completion of each component of the retirement systems modernization
project of the Office of Personnel Management, including all data elements
required for accurate completion of adjudication; and
(2)the date by which
all Federal payroll processing entities will electronically transmit all
personnel data to the Office of Personnel Management.
(d)The Office of Personnel Management shall include a
detailed statement regarding the progress of the Office of Personnel Management
in completing the retirement systems modernization project 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.
8.No increase in
expendituresIt is the sense
of Congress that no additional funds should be appropriated to carry out this
Act.