[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1660 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1660

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 19, 2013

Mr. Cuellar (for himself and Mr. McCaul) 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 and 
          to improve the service provided by 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 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 STANDARDS.

    (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 Performance Plan required under section 1115 of 
        title 31, United States Code.
            (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, electronic mail, 
                mail, benefit processing, and payments.
    (b) Agency Standards.--
            (1) In general.--The Chief Performance Officer for each 
        agency shall establish customer service standards in accordance 
        with the Government-wide standards established under subsection 
        (a), which shall be included in the Agency Performance Plans 
        required under section 1115 of title 31, United States Code.
            (2) Requirements.--Agency standards established under 
        paragraph (1) shall include, if appropriate--
                    (A) target call wait times during peak and non-peak 
                hours;
                    (B) target response times for correspondence, both 
                by mail and electronic mail;
                    (C) procedures for ensuring all applicable metrics 
                are incorporated into service agreements with 
                nongovernmental individuals and entities;
                    (D) target response times for processing benefits 
                and making payments; and
                    (E) recommendations for effective publication of 
                customer service contact information, including a 
                mailing address, telephone number, and email address.
    (c) Customer Service Input.--The Performance Improvement Officer 
for 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.
    (d) Annual Performance Update.--The 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.

SEC. 4. 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 Program (in this section referred to as the 
``pilot program''), to provide assistance to agencies that do not meet 
the Government-wide standards established under section 3.
    (b) Personnel.--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) Responsibilities.--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 the 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) 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 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) Support.--The Administrator of General Services 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 extent permitted by law, provide at the request of the 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget up to 2 personnel 
authorizations who have expertise in change management, process 
improvement, and information technology 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. 5. 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 paragraph (2) and 
        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 and the 
        Comptroller General of the United States, and issue publicly 
        (including on the website of the Office of Personnel 
        Management), a report that--
                    (A) 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
                    (B) indicates--
                            (i) the total number of applications for 
                        retirement benefits, lump sum death benefits, 
                        court ordered benefits, phased retirement, 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 requirement.--Paragraph (1) 
        shall not apply to the Director of the Office of Personnel 
        Management for any month immediately following a 3-year period 
        in which there are no applications described in paragraph 
        (1)(B) that have been pending for more than 60 days.
    (c) Modernization Timeline.--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) Budget Request.--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 and recommendations to 
Congress regarding the additional resources needed to fully implement 
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.

SEC. 6. 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.
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