The Federal government is in line to appoint a new senior official in charge of improving government services delivery.
That appointment will come courtesy of Congress, after President Biden on Jan. 4 signed into law the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act, which received Senate approval on Dec. 21, following House approval in May 2024.
The new law aims to improve customer experience and accountability across the Federal government by, among other steps, creating a new senior management position at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) devoted to improving customer experience.
The law also puts the onus on Federal agency heads to do the same, as it declares those leaders to be “responsible for improving government services, building better trust with the public, and designating a senior agency official to drive changes,” according to text of the bill.
Each Federal agency head will have one year to appoint a senior official that reports directly to them to take charge of implementing the law’s requirements.
In particular, the bill focuses on Federal agencies that are considered to be “high impact” service providers and that will be designated as such by OMB “due to the scale and impact of the public-facing services of the program.”
The new law also says that planned service delivery improvements – including those related to the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience (IDEA) Act – need to be identified in agency budget justifications provided to Congress.
Further, the new CX leader appointed by OMB will need to collaborate with agency officials to ensure that agency websites “are consistent with” requirements of the IDEA Act.
The IDEA Act was approved by Congress in 2018 and requires public-facing Federal agency websites to meet several modernization standards to be more accessible, user-friendly, and secure.
