[Senate Report 117-30]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 103
117th Congress } { Report
SENATE
1st Session } { 117-30
_______________________________________________________________________
FEDERAL AGENCY CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ACT OF 2021
__________
R E P O R T
of the
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
to accompany
S. 671
TO REQUIRE THE COLLECTION OF VOLUNTARY FEEDBACK
ON SERVICES PROVIDED BY AGENCIES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
July 19, 2021.--Ordered to be printed
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
19-010 WASHINGTON : 2021
COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
GARY C. PETERS, Michigan, Chairman
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona RAND PAUL, Kentucky
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
ALEX PADILLA, California MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JON OSSOFF, Georgia RICK SCOTT, Florida
JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri
David M. Weinberg, Staff Director
Zachary I. Schram, Chief Counsel
Lena C. Chang, Director of Governmental Affairs
Chelsea A. Davis, Professional Staff Member
Pamela Thiessen, Minority Staff Director
Andrew C. Dockham, Minority Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director
Amanda H. Neely, Minority Director of Governmental Affairs and General
Counsel
Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
Calendar No. 103
117th Congress } { Report
SENATE
1st Session } { 117-30
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FEDERAL AGENCY CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ACT OF 2021
_______
July 19, 2021.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Peters, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 671]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 671) to require the
collection of voluntary feedback on services provided by
agencies, and for other purposes, having considered the same,
reports favorably thereon without amendment and recommends that
the bill do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History.............................................3
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of Bill, as Reported.................3
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................4
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................4
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............5
I. Purpose and Summary
The Federal Agency Customer Experience Act of 2021, S. 671,
amends the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) to allow agencies to
solicit voluntary customer feedback without first having to
seek approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB),
as currently required by the PRA.\1\
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\1\On June 10, 2019, the Committee approved S. 1275, Federal Agency
Customer Experience Act of 2019, which is substantially similar to S.
671. Accordingly, this committee report is in large part a reproduction
of the Committee report for S. 1275, S. Rep. No. 116-46.
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II. Background and Need for Legislation
Originally passed in 1980\2\ and later amended in 1995,\3\
the PRA is intended to, in part, ``minimize the paperwork
burden for individuals'' and entities that interact with the
Federal Government and to ``improve the quality and use of
Federal information to strengthen decisionmaking,
accountability, and openness in Government and society.''\4\
This law assigns to the Director of OMB responsibility for the
``collection of information and the control of paperwork,''\5\
which includes responsibility for ``review[ing] and approv[ing]
proposed agency collections of information.''\6\
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\2\Pub. L. No. 96-511, 94 Stat. 2812.
\3\Pub. L. No. 104-13, 109 Stat. 163.
\4\ 44 U.S.C. Sec. 3501(1) and (4).
\5\44 U.S.C. Sec. 3504(c).
\6\44 U.S.C. Sec. 3504(c)(1).
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The PRA outlines an explicit process and criteria whereby
agencies undertake certain steps to justify, quantify the
impact of, and submit for approval any proposed information
collection.\7\ OMB is responsible for timely review of such
proposals, coordination across agencies, establishment of
government-wide standards and guidelines, and ``minimiz[ing]
the Federal information collection burden, with particular
emphasis on those individuals and entities most adversely
affected.''\8\
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\7\The scope of agencies under this law include both those commonly
understood to be Executive agencies as well as independent regulatory
commissions, as defined in 44 U.S.C. Sec. 3502 (referenced in Section 3
of the PRA).
\8\44 U.S.C. Sec. 3504(c).
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S. 671 seeks to encourage agencies to collect voluntary
feedback about the quality and perceptions of their services
and interactions with the public by exempting a proscribed
survey instrument from the review requirements under the PRA.
According to the 2020 American Customer Satisfaction Index,
public administration and government are at the bottom of all
American economic sectors in customer satisfaction.\9\ The 2020
score for the federal government is among the lowest scores
received since 1999.\10\ The bill aims to facilitate the
gathering of useful and timely customer satisfaction
information to encourage continuous improvement of agency
customer service.
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\9\The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a national,
cross-industry measure of customer satisfaction in the United States.
In the 2020 ACSI, the aggregated score for ``Federal Government'' is
65.1 (down 4.4 percent since 2019), which is among the bottom four
aggregate benchmark scores for all industries. See American Customer
Satisfaction Index, ACSI Federal Government Report 2020, (Feb. 9, 2021)
(https://www.theacsi.org/images/stories/images/reports/21feb_GOV-
report.pdf), and American Customer Satisfaction Index, Benchmarks by
Sector: All Industries (March 2021) (https://www.theacsi.org/images/
stories/images/nationalquarterlyscores/21mar_acsi_sector_scores-2.pdf).
\10\Id., ACSI Federal Government Report 2020.
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The surveys permitted under S. 671 consist of a limited set
of questions developed by the Director of OMB, in consultation
with the Administrator of General Services (and with additional
questions developed by the participating agencies). The bill
requires the solicitation to participate in a survey to be
conducted at the point of service. Surveys must be voluntary
and respondents must remain anonymous. Individuals who decline
to respond cannot be treated differently by agencies for the
purposes of providing services or information. The data
collected pursuant to S. 671 will be made public in aggregated
form through regular agency reports and a centralized website
established by the Director of OMB.
III. Legislative History
Senator Margaret Hassan (D-NH) introduced S. 671 on March
10, 2021, with Senator James Lankford (R-OK). The bill was
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs.
The Committee considered S. 671 at a March 17, 2021
business meeting. During the business meeting, the bill was
reported favorably en bloc by voice vote with Senators Peters,
Rosen, Padilla, Portman, Johnson, Lankford, Romney, Scott, and
Hawley present.
IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of Bill, as Reported
Section 1. Short title
This section provides the bill's short title, the ``Federal
Agency Customer Experience Act of 2021.''
Section 2. Findings; Sense of Congress
This section contains several findings regarding the
Federal Government's provision of customer service, including
how the Federal Government should continue to improve its
service based on customer feedback, as well as how it
consistently ranks among the lowest industries for customer
satisfaction. In addition, it finds that improving the customer
experience increases public confidence in the government.
This section also contains a sense of Congress that
agencies should strive to provide the highest quality services
to the public they serve by using feedback to better understand
and measure quality. Additionally, it notes that sufficient
funding levels are needed to support adequate staffing to
improve delivery of high-quality customer service.
Section 3. Definitions
This section defines the terms ``Administrator,''
``Agency,'' ``Covered Agency,'' ``Director,'' and ``Voluntary
Feedback.''
Section 4. Application of the Paperwork Reduction Act to collection of
voluntary feedback
This section amends the PRA to add a new definition for the
term ``voluntary feedback.'' It also amends the PRA to add
collection of voluntary feedback to the exemptions to the PRA's
requirements for OMB review of agency information collections.
Section 5. Guidelines for voluntary feedback
This section outlines several requirements that apply to
agencies that solicit voluntary feedback. Customer responses
must be anonymous and declinations to participate must not lead
to differential treatment; moreover, solicitations for
voluntary feedback are limited to 10 questions. Other
provisions require that the solicitation be clearly identified
as voluntary, and that it be made only once during an
interaction between the customer and they agency, ideally at
the point of service.
Section 6. Customer experience data collection
Subsection (a) names the agency personnel responsible for
collecting voluntary feedback.
Subsection (b) describes the types of questions that
voluntary feedback must include, as well as the personnel at
OMB and participating agencies who are responsible for
developing these questions.
Subsection (c) stipulates that voluntary feedback must be
tied to specific customer interactions across all platforms and
channels.
Subsection (d) requires participating agencies to send
annual reports to OMB summarizing the results of voluntary
feedback; these reports must be published on a website
maintained by OMB. This subsection also requires agencies to
publish regular aggregated reports regarding their voluntary
feedback activities.
Section. 7. Customer experience report
This section requires the Comptroller General of the United
States to submit reports summarizing the results of agency
reports and assessing improvements to agency customer service
based on voluntary feedback.
Section 8. Restriction on use of information
This section clarifies that information gathered pursuant
to this bill may not be used to assess the job performance of
Federal employees.
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact
Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs
on state, local, or tribal governments.
VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, April 6, 2021.
Hon. Gary C. Peters,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 671, the Federal
Agency Customer Service Experience Act of 2021.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Matthew
Pickford.
Sincerely,
Phillip L. Swagel,
Director.
Enclosure.
S. 671 would direct agencies to collect information from
their customers using standard questions developed by the
Office of Management and Budget and the General Services
Administration. The bill also would require agencies to post
the responses to those questions online, to use the responses
to improve their services, and to establish a website that
would link to agency reports on customer service. Finally, the
bill would require the Government Accountability Office to
prepare an annual report on the quality of customer service
provided by federal agencies.
Most provisions of the bill would codify policies and
practices agencies already follow to gather feedback and
improve customer service. For instance, the President's
Management Agenda and Gears of Government Award program
encourage customer service improvements, while the Government
Performance and Results Act and the Government Performance and
Results Modernization Act require agencies to improve customer
service performance. CBO estimates that implementing the bill
would cost $2 million over the 2021-2026 period, primarily for
agencies to adjust the ongoing customer service plans and to
prepare annual reports.
Enacting the bill could affect direct spending by some
agencies that are allowed to use fees, receipts from the sale
of goods, and other collections to cover operating costs. CBO
estimates that any net changes in direct spending by those
agencies would be negligible because most of them can adjust
amounts collected to reflect changes in operating costs.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matthew
Pickford. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss,
Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by
S. 671 as reported are shown as follows (existing law proposed
to be omitted is enclosed in brackets, new matter is printed in
italic, and existing law in which no change is proposed is
shown in roman):
UNITED STATES CODE
* * * * * * *
TITLE 44--PUBLIC PRINTING AND DOCUMENTS
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER 35--COORDINATION OF FEDERAL INFORMATION POLICY
* * * * * * *
Subchapter I--Federal Information Policy
* * * * * * *
SEC. 3502. DEFINITIONS
(1) * * *
* * * * * * *
(22) the term ``public data asset'' means a data
asset, or part thereof, maintained by the Federal
Government that has been, or may be, released to the
public, including any data asset, or part thereof,
subject to disclosure undersection 552 of title 5;
[and]
(23) the term ``statistical laws'' means subchapter
III of this chapter and other laws pertaining to the
protection of information collected for statistical
purposes as designated by the Director[.]; and
(24) the term ``voluntary feedback'' means any
submission of information, opinion, or concern that
is--
(A) voluntarily made by a specific individual
or other entity relating to a particular
service of or transaction with an agency; and
(B) specifically solicited by that agency.
* * * * * * *
SEC. 3518. EFFECT ON EXISTING LAWS AND REGULATIONS
(a) * * *
(b) * * *
(c) * * *
(1) * * *
(A) * * *
(B) * * *
(C) by compulsory process pursuant to the
Antitrust Civil Process Act and section 13 of
the Federal Trade Commission Improvements Act
of 1980; [or]
(D) during the conduct of intelligence
activities as defined in section 3.4(e) of
Executive Order No. 12333, issued December 4,
1981, or successor orders, or during the
conduct of cryptologic activities that are
communications security activities[.]; or
(E) by an agency that is voluntary feedback.