Security Clearance Jobs Blog

An article posted on ClearanceJobs.com on 26 Jan 09 focuses on the relevance and effect of criminal conduct on security clearances.

The Adjudicative Guidelines states that Criminal activity creates doubt about a person’s judgment, reliability and trustworthiness. By its very nature, it calls into question a person’s ability or willingness to comply with laws, rules and regulations.

Because of the high rate of adult recidivism, this issue is perhaps one of the best predictors of future compliance with rules for handling classified information.

---

The Questionnaire for National Security Positions (Standard Form 86 – SF86) asks if an applicant has ever been charged with a felony offense or any offense involving alcohol, drugs, firearms or explosives. It also asks if an applicant:

1) has been arrested within the past 7 years (10 years for Top Secret clearance),
2) has been subject to court martial or other military disciplinary proceedings, or
3) is currently pending some court action for a criminal charge or offense.

Criminal offenses are divided into three categories: infractions, misdemeanors, and felonies. For security clearance purposes, an infraction is…read more.

Comments Off

135 Comments »

A 20 January 2009 article in Federaltimes.com reported that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is ready to handle clearance investigations for the Obama administration’s approximately 6,000 to 7,000 new politically appointed officials. Kathy Dillaman, Associate Director of OPM’s Federal Investigative Services Division was reported as saying, “Piece of cake. . . .The influx of Obama staffers will be a drop in the bucket compared to the roughly 2.3 million background checks OPM is expected to handle this year.”

In reality OPM currently conducts about 600,000 security clearance investigations a year. Two-thirds of the often cited 2 million “checks” involve only a fraction of the work required for a security clearance investigation. Nevertheless 6,000 only represents 1% of OPM’s annual clearance investigation workload, and OPM is adequately staffed to absorb much more than a 1% increase.

The 6,000 to 7,000 Obama officials are also expected to be spread out over the next few months, which mitigates the surge effect, Dillaman said. OPM is ready to offer [investigative] employees overtime or bring on some additional [investigative] contractors in case clearances start to back up, she said.

31 Comments »

A GovExec.com article on the 17 Dec 08 Joint Security and Suitability Reform Team (JSSRT) report reviewed the progress made toward improving the clearance system and reducing turnaround time. Although most of the changes to the system are scheduled to be implemented during 2009; full implementation will not be achieved until September 2010. Some of the highlights of the plan include:

Reducing the types of initial investigations from 15 to 3.

Reducing the types of reinvestigations from 5 to 2.

Using eAdjudication on about 25% of all Secret clearances.

Revising the clearance application form.

Replacing periodic reinvestigations with Continuous Evaluation.

Training and certification of security clearance professionals.

Improving the method of measuring performance.

Comments Off

This year, the FBI is hoping to add almost a thousand new special agents and around two thousand support staff on a large hiring blitz. Think you got what it takes to be an agent? Of a large number of candidates enter the FBI training academy, only a few make it out. The CIA is also hiring for a wide variety of positions.

4 Comments »

President-elect Barack Obama appointed a defense contractor’s lobbyist Thursday to become the No. 2 official at the Defense Department, a choice that appeared to break with his self-imposed rules to keep lobbyists at arm’s length.

William J. Lynn III, Obama’s choice for deputy defense secretary, is a former Pentagon official who now is senior vice president for government operations at Raytheon Co. Lynn hasn’t been a registered lobbyist since July, meaning he can’t personally lobby Congress or the White House.

In the first three months of 2008, his lobbying team reported spending $1.15 million to influence issues including missiles, sensors and radar, advanced technology programs and intelligence funding.

Obama has vowed that no political appointees in his administration would be permitted to work on areas that “directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years.” Although Lynn heads Raytheon’s division for government operations and strategy and was personally registered as a Raytheon lobbyist until July — both within that two-year period — Obama plans to give him the job.

“We are aware that Mr. Lynn lobbied for Raytheon, and are working with Mr. Lynn to craft a role for him that is consistent with the President-elect’s high standards while balancing the need to fill this critical national security position,” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Vietor declined to comment further on whether Lynn would have to remove himself from involvement on any issues.

Read the full article from the AP. How do you feel about industry getting even closer to government? A good thing or bad potentially for defense industry jobs?

4 Comments »