Security Clearance Jobs Blog

The quest to speed up the security clearance process continues with several Senators introducing the Security Clearance Modernization and Reporting Act of 2009 yesterday.

Overall the bill’s goal is similar to the Executive Order 13467 President Bush signed in June 2008 and would codify many of those provisions.

An article in NextGov goes on to say that the bill would:

• “mandate the creation of a performance accountability council to oversee the reduction of the government’s security clearance backlog and extends reporting requirements.”
• director of OMB will submit an IT strategy to Congress within 120 days of the bill’s enactment to speed up the security clearance process.
• “agencies would have to continue reporting to Congress on their progress in improving the security clearance process until two years after GAO removes the program from the high-risk list.”

“As for reciprocal recognition of security clearances among agencies, the legislation, a Senate Democratic committee aide said the bill “reemphasizes” that requirement. “We were getting the sense that not everyone was following the intent, as we saw it, of what reciprocal recognition was,” the staffer said.”

Related Articles: Security Clearance Reciprocity of Special Access Eligibility

6 Comments »

An article in the Washington Business Journal on Friday, April 25, 2008 reported information from a survey of more than 100 government contractors, made by the National Defense Industrial Association and the Information Technology Association of America regarding security clearance processing.

“Businesses say the federal government has made some ‘modest progress’ on chipping away at the backlog of security clearances, but it still has a long way to go before the system for granting clearances meets the still-growing demand.”

One of the more interesting results of the survey was that 71 percent of the respondents said that “one or more agencies failed to recognize clearances already held by employees.”

What’s interesting is this recent OPM quote:

“Office of Personnel Management officials say that with recent improvements, most employees are now cleared in 120 days.”

Something doesn’t add up here.. Your thoughts?

8 Comments »

In yesterday’s USA Today, a report titled “White House looks for faster top secret clearances” details the positive efforts of Office of Management and Budget deputy director Clay Johnson to reduce the security clearance backlog.

The idea, is that extensive background checks, specifically interviewing a clearance applicant’s friends and neighbors may not be necessary. By reducing the overall investigation, more candidates can be cleared quicker.

Kudos to Mr. Johnson for proposing an idea that would have positive impact on the clearance backlog. On some levels, the suggestion makes a whole lot of sense.

Some believe though, that an investigation that is not as detailed may pose security risks. What do you think?

104 Comments »