Clearance reform gets a boost
Recent executive order clarifies roles, sets agencies’ responsibilities
By Matthew Weigelt
Published on July 21, 2008
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In April, a joint reform team comprised of the director of national intelligence, Defense Department, Office of Personnel Management, and Office of Management and Budget proposed a process that manages the hiring and clearance process from an enterprise perspective.
The proposal designs policies and standards that make hiring and clearing personnel more efficient. In a report, the team said it was ready to pursue a design under which:
- More relevant information is collected and validated at the beginning of the process, using the application, automated record checks and an enhanced subject interview.
- Automation is used to make the process faster, reduce manual work and use additional data sources.
- Investigations are focused to collect targeted information.
- Decisions rely on modern analytic methods rather than old practices.
- Relevant data is better used for subsequent hiring or clearing decisions, enabling exchange, and reducing duplication.
- Continuous evaluations replace periodic reinvestigations.
- Automated database checks occur more frequently to identify security issues among already-cleared personnel, permitting targeted resolution of cases as issues arise.
Source: White House report
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A new Bush administration directive could mitigate one of the sticking points that plague the federal government’s process for granting security clearances: reciprocity.
Agencies are often unwilling to accept clearances granted by other agencies, forcing career-changers — and their would-be managers — to wait out a process before they fully can move into a new job.
Executive Order 13467 mandates that other agencies accept background investigations and adjudications conducted by one agency. Once the process is in place, this order is expected to help reduce the backlog, freeing resources to focus on new clearances.
Although this is only one of numerous problems with the clearance process, the Bush administration has laid a foundation on which to begin the reforms, observers say.
Shaping reforms
The order creates two executive agents to resolve security investigation issues and set standards to apply governmentwide. It also establishes a council charged with ensuring the reforms move ahead.
“The new order finally clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the agencies involved in both the suitability and security clearance processes,” said Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia Subcommittee.
Some members of Congress say it’s a good next step toward reforms that senators, such as Akaka and George Voinovich (R-Ohio), the subcommittee’s ranking member, have pushed for several years.
“It is my hope that the new council, headed by the Office of Management and Budget, can work closely with clearance stakeholders to put new systems into place that will cut down on the redundancies and inefficiency that plague the current process,” Akaka said.
Voinovich believes new technology and information sharing policies across the executive branch will improve the system, said the senator’s press secretary, Garrette Silverman.
Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, believes the order could bring much-needed reforms, such as faster processing time for simple clearances, said Brian McNicoll, Davis’ spokesman.
“Now, he hopes it is carried out as stated,” McNicoll said.
Bush’s move toward reform is, in large part, a building block for the next president. Many reforms ultimately hinge on whether the incoming administration views the security clearance problems as a high priority, said Trey Hodgkins, vice president of federal government programs at the Information Technology Association of America.
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