Security Clearance Jobs Blog

Score one for the bureaucracy: Mule drivers at an eastern Pennsylvania historical park need the same federal security clearance as port workers. The Homeland Security Department has refused to grant an exemption to workers who operate a mule-pulled boat at the National Canal Museum in Easton.

This excerpt from a March 24, 2008 Associated Press article appearing in a number of Pennsylvania newspapers including the York Daily Record went on to report that each of the 4 mule drivers at the small museum will be required to have a Transportation Worker Identification Credential. The cost of processing these credentials will be $420, and the museum may have to increase their price for a canal ride.

These are not the same as the security clearances discussed on this blog, but the price of the identification credential appears to be equal to the cost of 4 NACIs (National Agency Check with Inquiries), the type of investigation needed for Personal Identity Verification Cards issued in compliance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12).

Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory obtained a court injunction against the HSPD-12 background investigation requirement on the grounds that it is an unconstitutional violation of their privacy, but not so for mule drivers at a museum.

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A press release from USIS indicates their investigators will soon use smartphones to help them perform a variety of functions to complete their casework when in the field conducting background investigations for the federal government.

USIS is piloting a program in its New York and Orlando offices, where investigators and site inspectors are trying out smartphones to process fieldwork, manage their case activities, and handle extension and lead information in real time.

Investigators can stay in immediate contact with team and workload leaders and access valuable information such as information indexes, issue resolution guides, and their own workload summaries.

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A March 11, 2009 article in the Federal Times revisited The Joint Security and Suitability Reform Team’s aims, including creating an automated end-to-end clearance process by the end of 2010. The idea is to use computers to automate what can be automated and to help better direct investigators toward areas where more scrutiny is needed…

“The government also wants to automate the process of approving and disapproving ” known as adjudicating” secret security clearances…Roughly one-quarter of secret investigations find no red flags that would cause adjudicating officials to take a closer look”…

The Army started experimenting with e-adjudication in November and will soon (June) be conducting automated record checks.

“Some industry observers, however, expect the effort will take at least three to five years to complete”…

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A March 3, 2009 article in the D.C. Examiner reported that three workers pleaded guilty to “cutting corners on security-sensitive background checks for the federal government.” They failed to perform interviews and fraudulently submitted documents for years and lied to government officials.

As a result, numerous background investigations will be reopened and numerous record checks will have to be redone that were assigned to the three guilty workers.

Press releases from the Department of Justice regarding these cases can be found here and here.

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