Executive Order 12862 (Setting Customer Service Standards)

Administration of William J. Clinton, 1993 / Sept. 11

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help to do that. People in Washington need
to think the American people want this. They
don’t need to think it’s Bill Clinton and Al
Gore’s deal; they need to think it’s your deal.
And if they think it’s your deal, then we can
pass it.
[At this point, the President signed the Executive orders and the memorandum.]

essary for the delivery of essential services
and compliance with applicable law.
Sec. 4. Independent Agencies. All independent regulatory commissions and agencies are requested to comply with the provisions of this order.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:39 a.m. at the
Texas Surplus Property Agency. In his remarks,
he referred to Mayor Bob Lanier of Houston,
Gary Marrow, Texas land commissioner; John
Sharp, Texas State comptroller; Billy Hamilton,
Texas deputy comptroller and Deputy Director,
National Performance Review; and Representative Gene Green.

The White House,
September 11, 1993.

Executive Order 12861—Elimination
of One-Half of Executive Branch
Internal Regulations
September 11, 1993
By the authority vested in me as President
by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States of America, including section
301 of title 3, United States Code, and section 1111 of title 31, United States Code, and
to cut 50 percent of the executive branch’s
internal regulations in order to streamline
and improve customer service to the American people, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Regulatory Reductions. Each
executive department and agency shall undertake to eliminate not less than 50 percent
of its civilian internal management regulations that are not required by law within 3
years of the effective date of this order. An
agency internal management regulation, for
the purposes of this order, means an agency
directive or regulation that pertains to its organization, management, or personnel matters. Reductions in agency internal management regulations shall be concentrated in
areas that will result in the greatest improvement in productivity, streamlining of operations, and improvement in customer service.
Sec. 2. Coverage. This order applies to all
executive branch departments and agencies.
Sec. 3. Implementation. The Director of
the Office of Management and Budget shall
issue instructions regarding the implementation of this order, including exemptions nec-

William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register,
11:35 a.m., September 13, 1993]
NOTE: This Executive order was published in the
Federal Register on September 14.

Executive Order 12862—Setting
Customer Service Standards
September 11, 1993
Putting people first means ensuring that
the Federal Government provides the highest quality service possible to the American
people. Public officials must embark upon a
revolution within the Federal Government to
change the way it does business. This will
require continual reform of the executive
branch’s management practices and operations to provide service to the public that
matches or exceeds the best service available
in the private sector.
Now, Therefore, to establish and implement customer service standards to guide the
operations of the executive branch, and by
the authority vested in me as President by
the Constitution and the laws of the United
States, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Customer Service Standards.
In order to carry out the principles of the
National Performance Review, the Federal
Government must be customer-driven. The
standard of quality for services provided to
the public shall be: Customer service equal
to the best in business. For the purposes of
this order, ‘‘customer’’ shall mean an individual or entity who is directly served by a department or agency. ‘‘Best in business’’ shall
mean the highest quality of service delivered

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Sept. 11 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1993

to customers by private organizations providing a comparable or analogous service.
All executive departments and agencies
(hereinafter referred to collectively as ‘‘agency’’ or ‘‘agencies’’) that provide significant
services directly to the public shall provide
those services in a manner that seeks to meet
the customer service standard established
herein and shall take the following actions:
(a) identify the customers who are, or
should be, served by the agency;
(b) survey customers to determine the
kind and quality of services they want and
their level of satisfaction with existing services;
(c) post service standards and measure results against them;
(d) benchmark customer service performance against the best in business;
(e) survey front-line employees on barriers
to, and ideas for, matching the best in business;
(f) provide customers with choices in both
the sources of service and the means of delivery;
(g) make information, services, and complaint systems easily accessible; and
(h) provide means to address customer
complaints.
Sec. 2. Report on Customer Service Surveys. By March 8, 1994, each agency subject
to this order shall report on its customer surveys to the President. As information about
customer satisfaction becomes available,
each agency shall use that information in
judging the performance of agency management and in making resource allocations.
Sec. 3. Customer Service Plans. By September 8, 1994, each agency subject to this
order shall publish a customer service plan
that can be readily understood by its customers. The plan shall include customer service standards and describe future plans for
customer surveys. It also shall identify the
private and public sector standards that the
agency used to benchmark its performance
against the best in business. In connection
with the plan, each agency is encouraged to
provide training resources for programs
needed by employees who directly serve customers and by managers making use of customer survey information to promote the
principles and objectives contained herein.

Sec. 4. Independent Agencies. Independent agencies are requested to adhere to this
order.
Sec. 5. Judicial Review. This order is for
the internal management of the executive
branch and does not create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by
a party against the United States, its agencies
or instrumentalities, its officers or employees, or any other person.
William J. Clinton
The White House,
September 11, 1993.
[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register,
11:39 a.m., September 13, 1993]
NOTE: This Executive order was published in the
Federal Register on September 14.

Memorandum on Streamlining the
Bureaucracy
September 11, 1993
Memorandum for Heads of Departments and
Agencies
Subject: Streamlining the Bureaucracy
Consistent with the National Performance
Review’s recommendation to reduce the executive branch civilian work force by
252,000, or not less than 12 percent, by the
close of fiscal year 1999, I hereby direct each
head of an executive department or agency
to prepare, as a first step, a streamlining plan
to be submitted to the Director of the Office
of Management and Budget not later than
December 1, 1993.
The streamlining plans shall be prepared
in accordance with the following:
1. Each executive department’s and agency’s plans should address, among other
things, the means by which it will reduce
the ratio of managers and supervisors to
other personnel, with a goal of reducing
the percentage who are supervisors or
managers in halving the current ratio
within 5 years.
2. The streamlining plans should be characterized by (a) delegation of authority,
(b) decentralization, (c) empowerment