Customer Service
National crisis and support hotline operations remained consistent despite staffing cuts, watchdog found
Some staff operating mental health support hotlines at the departments of Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs were subject to reductions in force last year and have not yet been replaced.
IRS could be required to publicly report wait times and backlogs
A bipartisan Senate bill would create new transparency around the agency's customer service performance and expand callback options for taxpayers.
Government service delivery needs standard definitions, former government tech leaders say
A new proposal urges Congress to align common definitions across federal programs, arguing the current patchwork creates administrative burdens and complicates service delivery.
GSA taps White House design team to revamp Login.gov
The collaboration is aimed at making the government's identity platform easier to use while leaving decisions about what changes get implemented to GSA.
How State finally got online passport renewal to stick
After a failed first rollout, the department reworked how it builds and deploys tech, bringing frontline staff into the process and scaling a system that’s now handling millions of renewals.
House votes to make IRS publish call metrics online
The bill would require the tax agency to release detailed, real time and monthly call metrics. The House also passed a technology proposal meant to move the IRS off paper.
AI is helping VA speed up claims processing, but Dems worry about errors
“Speed does not equal success,” Rep. Tim Kennedy, D-N.Y., said about VA’s use of automation and AI to process veterans’ benefits claims.
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VA has touted appointment wait time reductions, but new data shows a more mixed reality
A comparative analysis of select wait-time data for new patients at more than 100 medical centers indicates the department has made progress in some areas, but not all.
Why the federal government needs to stop obsessing over process
COMMENTARY | Government performance systems often reward documentation, activity and procedural defensibility more than real-world impact. Federal managers must ask three critical questions to eliminate counterproductive rules.
Much of the government’s technology isn’t accessible, internal report finds
Just over a third of the government’s most-viewed websites met legal requirements that they be accessible for people with disabilities.
New White House design team aims for ‘delightful’ websites — changing design ethos in the process
Trump’s chief design officer says that his work shouldn’t be controversial, but his team’s track record has raised questions about who their websites are for, who they leave out and whether the White House can garner trust based on sleek design alone.
VA doesn't know how many calls it's answering or how long veterans are waiting to get through
The department's failure to track call data is putting "veterans who may need timely and critical care at risk," the inspector general finds.
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VA’s National Cemetery Administration earns top customer satisfaction scores
For the eighth year in a row, the small agency earned the highest rankings in the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Satisfaction with government services rises, despite recent layoffs and turmoil
The Trump administration has touted some service delivery projects and launched a design initiative, but it has also fired and pushed out thousands of civil servants.
I spent 50 years in government and here’s how to fix it
COMMENTARY | After serving under presidents from Johnson to Obama, David Mader has seen what works and what doesn’t in government and why improving it is about making it serve the public better, not running it like a business.
A developing database of constituent complaints to Congress could help agencies find systemic issues in their public services
While Capitol Hill staffers help constituents when they have trouble getting assistance from an agency, there’s currently no way to track that information across congressional offices.
USDA wants to modernize farmer services, even as staffing cuts could hurt the effort
The department plans to digitize farmer-facing applications that are still on paper.
Smarter, Faster, Lighter: A roadmap for agile evidence building
COMMENTARY | With DOGE initiatives fundamentally changing the state of federal policy evaluation, it could be time to embrace more evidence-based approaches to assess agency actions.
‘Over half’ of federal websites got better in the past year, OMB official says
Metrics released by the Office of Management and Budget offer insight into how agencies are implementing the 21st Century IDEA Act.
Agencies still struggle with online accessibility, GSA says
The landscape under Trump 2.0 isn’t clear, either.
HHS’ 2024 AI use case inventory shows move toward internal chatbots
The agency reported 271 AI use cases in 2024, which it said represented a 66% increase from its reported 2023 total.
