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Public policy experts on Tuesday offered Congress recommendations for tackling the government's security clearance backlog, which has left hundreds of thousands of federal and contract employees in limbo for months, and in some cases years.

Officials told the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management that a single database of clearance information is needed, and a security clearance granted by one agency should be accepted at all other agencies.

Congress is considering overhauling security clearance procedures in response to proposals made by the 9/11 commission. The commission said a single federal agency should be responsible for providing and maintaining security clearances and for ensuring uniform clearance standards, including maintaining a single database of clearance information.

"More than 480,000 employees and contractors are currently waiting for their security clearance to be completed, and the clearance process routinely takes more than a year," the Partnership for Public Service said in written testimony submitted to the panel. "One possible solution for accelerating the process is to charge one federal agency with performing and maintaining security clearances."

The Information Technology Association of America, however, disagrees with designating one agency with sole responsibility for providing and maintaining clearances, said Doug Wagoner, chairman of ITAA's Security Clearance Task Group.

He said that a single agency would get bogged down in bureaucracy trying to handle security clearances across the government. Instead, ITAA supports the creation of a security clearance "czar," or an individual who would manage clearance processes and set common standards across agencies. Wagoner said it might make sense if that individual were a deputy to a national intelligence director.

The major concern with one agency handling all security clearances, according to Wagoner, is evident with problems the Office of Personnel Management is facing.

"The demand for background checks exceeds our capacity," Stephen Benowitz, OPM's associate director for human resources products and services, told the House Government Reform Committee last month. "We believe the process is one that needs improvement."

The Government Accountability Office also issued a report Tuesday outlining problems with security clearance procedures.

"Regardless of the decision about whether or not to consolidate investigative and adjudicative functions governmentwide, existing impediments -- such as the lack of a governmentwide database of clearance information -- hinder efforts to provide timely, high-quality clearance determinations," according to the report (GAO-04-1084T).

For example, GAO found that requests requiring Top Secret clearances for industry personnel working for the Defense Department grew from 17 percent to 27 percent from 1995 to 2003. According to the Pentagon, though, processing Top Secret clearances takes 16 times the investigative effort and 6 times the adjudicative effort as it does to process Secret clearances.

GAO also reported that Defense and OPM need about 8,000 full-time-equivalent investigative personnel to eliminate the backlog. In February, however, GAO estimated that the agencies have about 4,200 full-time-equivalents.

COMMENTS

• A large step would be to go ahead and assign the 200 new DSS investigators within the 90-120 day period OPM quoted on May 6th. It is my understanding that the June 25th applicants still haven't heard word if they were granted an interview. While there are still questions relating to streamlining and standardizing, everyone seems to agree that DSS/OPM simply need more manpower. The quicker that manpower is hired, the better. Where is that "~47 day" processing time that OPM is touting? GovExec.com reader Posted September 15, 2004 11:47 AM
• No surprises here. This disaster has been building ever since the function was first privatized (well before 9/11) and then sucked up by some of the big hitters in government contracting (e.g., Carlyle Group). Perfect poster child for the benefits of privatization and contracting out. I've got employees -- young employees -- hired after graduation from college who have waited 2 years for a clearance (a Secret clearance). Of course, the Rice Bowl set (each Agency must have its own process) isn't helping. We have met the enemy -- and he is us. Steve Johnson Posted September 15, 2004 6:09 AM