H.R. 2846 would authorize the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to identify agencies to collect feedback from customers regarding agency services using standard questions developed by OMB and the General Services Administration. The bill also would require agencies to post responses online and to use the feedback to improve their services. Finally, the bill would establish a website that would link to all agency reports and it would require the Government Accountability Office to report annually on the quality of those agencies’ customer service.
According to information from selected agencies, most provisions of the bill would expand on current law, policies, and practices of the federal government. The White House Office of American Innovation, established through a presidential memorandum, recommends policies and plans to improve government operations and services. Executive Order 13571 also directed agencies to develop customer service plans. In addition, the Government Performance and Results Act and the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act require agencies to improve performance. Because such efforts are ongoing and the bill’s new reporting requirements are not significantly different from current requirements, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would have no significant cost.
Enacting H.R. 2846 could affect direct spending by agencies that use fees, receipts from the sale of goods, and other collections to cover operating costs. Therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Because most of those agencies can adjust the amounts collected as their operating costs change, CBO estimates that any net changes in direct spending by those agencies would be insignificant. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2846 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2029.
H.R. 2846 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
On July 14, 2017, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 1088, the Federal Agency Customer Service Act of 2017, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on May 17, 2017. The two pieces of legislation are similar and CBO’s estimates of their budgetary effects are the same.
