Background Investigations Costs for FY 2021
The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) took over the background investigation process from the National Background Investigations Bureau last October and has used the same billing rates for background investigations since fiscal year 2018, but there will be some modest changes starting in FY 2021. Here is the breakdown of current and future rates:
| Current Rates | FY 2021 Rates | ||||
| Investigation Type | Standard | Priority | Standard | Priority | |
| National Agency Check (NAC) | $154 | Unavailable | $159 | Unavailable | |
| Tier 1 (T1) | $194 | Unavailable | $198 | Unavailable | |
| Tier 2 (T2) | $536 | $660 | $559 | $604 | |
| T2 (with subject interview) | $1,550 | $1,674 | $1,573 | $1,618 | |
| Tier 2 Reinvestigation (T2R) | $247 | $348 | $265 | $286 | |
| T2R (with subject interview) | $1,261 | $1,362 | $1,279 | $1,300 | |
| Tier 3 (T3) | $433 | Unavailable | $440 | Unavailable | |
| T3 Reinvestigation | $417 | Unavailable | $424 | Unavailable | |
| Tier 4 | $4,218 | $4,555 | $4,233 | $4,571 | |
| T4 Reinvestigation | $2,646 | $2,858 | $2,723 | $2,940 | |
| Tier 5 (T5) | $5,596 | $6,043 | $5,706 | $6,163 | |
| T5 Reinvestigation | $3,065 | $3,310 | $3,134 | $3,385 |
Over the last three years Continuous Evaluation (CE) program efforts have cut down on the number of periodic reinvestigations (PR), which in turn has helped cut the investigation backlog down to 200,000 as of February 2020. With CE evolving into Continuous Vetting (CV), all of the deferred reinvestigations will probably become a thing of the past, and this is a good thing. Assessing potential issues in real-time rather than waiting for a PR every five years enables security managers to review and assess clearance eligibility and address problematic behaviors sooner.
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