Government Contact Act

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

First of all, I would like to commend Chairman Waxman and my colleague from New York, my longtime friend (Mr. Towns), with whom, as he noted, we share the same birthday, for bringing the Federal Customer Service Enhancement Act to the floor today. I also appreciate their efforts as it moved through committee, and I certainly want to thank him for accommodating comments and concerns we raised during the process. As Chairman Towns noted, he has included and the chairman has included in this legislation concerns that the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) raised and also has included legislation that I introduced, H.R. 2324, in this bill. As a cosponsor of this legislation, I fully support this bill, and I want to commend the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar) for his hard work on this, and we will hear from him in just a few minutes.

The Oversight and Government Reform Committee has always sought to improve the performance of the Federal Government, and as anyone who has ever worked in the private sector knows, customer service is the lifeblood of any organization.

As we often look to the private sector for best practices, I think it is important, Mr. Speaker, that we in the Federal Government are able to capture data on how each and every agency is doing in regard to customer service. The administration continues to work with us on this bill so no unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles are created.

This bill recognizes the importance of the agencies within the Federal Government to be responsive to their various constituencies and for the government to remain accountable to the American taxpayer. Responsiveness and accountability are the things that really are behind this legislation.

I particularly appreciate section 2 in which the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall develop standards and measures of customer service performance. I think that is very important and is a first. It has not been done before within the Federal Government. And especially, also, the parts in section 3, which incorporate much of my legislation and require customer service information such as a mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address. It requires the appointment of a customer relations representative. And one thing I have noticed, I have gotten letters from Federal Departments and agencies in the past, and there has been no mailing address, no phone number on there, almost as if the people within that Department or agency really didn't want to be bothered by their bosses, bothered by the American people calling on them or finding out how to contact them, and making it very difficult for many people to do so.

Section 5 is another good section of this bill and really is the result of the work of the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx), and that includes some incentives in there to do better jobs. Bonuses to Federal employees will now be based, at least in part, on customer service.

So with all of these things, I think this is good legislation. I ask my colleagues to join me in support of H.R. 404.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to just simply once again thank Chairman Towns and also thank the primary author of this legislation, Mr. Cuellar, for their work in bringing this bill to the floor.

I urge my colleagues to support what I think is very worthwhile and timely legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 404) to require the establishment of customer service standards for Federal agencies, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, the Federal Customer Service Enhancement Act will require Federal agencies to set higher performance standards in delivering customer service. Sometimes we complain about how we are treated, but do not take any action. This legislation is a step in the right direction, and we are doing something about the attitude of government employees.

We have worked with the GAO, OMB, and the minority, and in particular the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) to improve this bill. We have also incorporated the language from H.R. 2324, a bill sponsored by the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan), who shares the same birthday with me.

This bill is important to highlight the importance that the Congress puts on better customer service. I support its passage and urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar), who has worked very hard on this legislation. And let me also add, it has been a delight to work with him and his staff to bring this legislation to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Let me point out when complaints are not promptly resolved, frustrated customers seek redress in different agencies or at different parts or level of the same agency, resulting in duplicate effort and compounding costs and a waste of time.

Just as costs rise when citizens do not receive reliable information in a timely manner, trust also erodes as citizens become frustrated with a nonresponsive bureaucracy. Indeed, there has been a cumulative erosion of public confidence in government.

Please, let's work together to create a more responsive and more accountable government. So I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

I would also like to thank some folks. I would like to thank Congressman Waxman, who is the Chair of the full committee, in terms of his support and what he has done to help move this legislation forward. I would like to thank the ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Davis from Virginia, in terms of all of his support and help in moving it. I also, I think, indicated earlier on my colleague, Mr. Duncan, who has worked very hard to make this a reality. And, of course, I would like to thank Congressman Bilbray, who is the ranking member on the subcommittee, for all of his support as well, and all the staff members who worked so hard, along with Congressman Cuellar from Texas, along with Congresswoman Foxx. There have been a lot of people that really put a lot of time and energy into this to try to strengthen this bill. It might not be perfect, but I think it is a giant step in the right direction.

I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding the time on H.R. 404.

First of all, I want to start off by thanking Chairman Towns and his staff. The outstanding work that the chairman has done on moving this bill forward, I certainly want to thank him very much for the work that he has done. I also want to thank Mr. Duncan for the work that he has done because

apparently he has done a lot of work on customer service, and I thank him for putting those provisions in my bill also. I also want to thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina, Virginia Foxx. I don't see her here. I know she has put a lot of time in, she and her staff, so I want to thank her in making this a bipartisan bill.

Today Congress takes a major step towards improving how Federal Government interacts with the American people. I think we all want a government that works with the people. I think we all want results- oriented government, and part of the results-oriented government is customer service.

H.R. 404 will raise the level of attention given to how the Federal Government responds to the American public. The bill requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the OMB, to develop performance measures to determine whether Federal agencies are providing high-quality customer service to all the agencies to make sure that they have those customer service standards in place. It sets in place standards for Federal agencies to increase the quality of customer service and enhances the access to Federal information and services, like Mr. Duncan said a few minutes ago. It is important to know whom we are dealing with at the Federal Government and to make sure that people can access that information and get the quality of customer service that they deserve.

The legislation includes accountability provisions as well as incentives to Federal employees who go above this requirement. H.R. 404 also ensures that the initiatives outlined in this bill achieve their objectives through the use of both external and internal reviews by Congress. That is the oversight that Congress will provide on the customer service provisions that will be provided by the Federal agencies to the American public.

I believe that this bill improves Federal customer service, and this is something that is long overdue. I ask for a ``yes'' vote on this bipartisan bill, H.R. 404.

Again, Mr. Towns, thank you for the outstanding work you have done on this bill.