House might offer help with contractor security clearances

The House will consider an amendment to the fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill that would bar the Defense Department from revoking security clearances of contractors whose renewal applications have been stalled because of a Pentagon agency's money woes.

The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., could shield thousands of contractors at secure sites around the country -- and perhaps hundreds at General Dynamics' Electric Boat operation in Simmons' eastern Connecticut district -- from potential layoffs, the congressman said Tuesday.

His language was among 93 amendments to the $512.9 billion defense authorization measure submitted to the House Rules Committee for consideration.

Citing lack of money, the Defense Security Service late last month stopped issuing security clearances for the swelling numbers of contractors doing classified work for the military.

The agency also stopped sending paperwork to the Office of Personnel Management, which handles background checks.

Since then, there has been a "massive breakdown in the system" that is "creating fear" of layoffs among many defense contractors, Simmons said.

Meanwhile, House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., and Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., submitted an amendment that would promote the three-star chief of the National Guard Bureau to a four-star general and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The language also would require the military to make the deputy commander at U.S. Northern Command a three-star Guard officer -- a move the sponsors hope will improve federal and state integration during homeland emergencies.

Sens. Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., leaders of the Senate National Guard Caucus, introduced similar stand-alone legislation in the Senate earlier this year. And the House Armed Services' markup of the defense bill contains a provision that requires the independent Commission on the National Guard and Reserves to study the issue.

Commission Chairman Arnold Punaro Monday wrote House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., in support of the committee's provision. But he cautioned that it is too soon to make a final recommendation on the issue.

"We have received testimony in our first two major hearings [on the Bond-Leahy legislation] and reviewed other testimony relative to the profound changes contained in this legislation," Punaro wrote. "The testimony is conflicting and not in the depth and focus required to adopt such major legislation."

The commission will submit preliminary findings June 5.

Both Hunter and House Armed Services ranking member Ike Skelton, D-Mo., cautioned that the Davis-Taylor amendment could detract from the commission's work, which it will complete next year. "It would be unfair to them to take their mission away from them," Skelton said.