Senators Lankford, McCaskill Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Improve Government’s Customer Service Focus

WASHINGTON — Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) today introduced the bipartisan Federal Agency Customer Experience Act (S.1088), a bill to roll back a federal requirement that makes it difficult for agencies to get feedback from the public concerning their satisfaction with agencies’ customer service. 

Lankford and McCaskill introduced this bill after several agencies pointed to a federal requirement that prevented them from seeking voluntary feedback from the public without going through a lengthy and difficult approval process. This legislation eliminates this burdensome requirement while ensuring that any voluntary feedback will contribute to improved customer service at federal agencies. 

“One of the federal government’s core responsibilities is to efficiently serve the American people,” said Lankford. “If the American people have a problem with customer service from a federal agency, they should have a quick and easy way to let their government know there is a problem. The Federal Agency Customer Experience Act of 2017 will ensure the federal government will be more responsive to the American people. This legislation simplifies agencies’ efforts to receive voluntary customer feedback by eliminating an extensive and cumbersome interagency review process. The bill also directs agencies to post the results to their websites and requires them to use the feedback they receive to improve government services. We must do more to increase federal customer service and remove unnecessary requirements that make basic services tedious and overly bureaucratic.”

“Most people think interacting with the federal government is unpleasant—but at the same time we’re making it difficult for agencies to ask the public how they can improve—it makes no sense,” said McCaskill. “This law will allow the federal government to better identify specific customer service issues and start to implement changes to make the government work better for the American people.”

###