January
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which conducts 90 percent of all Personnel Security Investigations (PSI) for the federal government, reported they have increased their combined total (federal and contractor) field staff involved in PSI to about 7,300.
February
Kathleen Watson was named Director of the Defense Security Service (DSS). She was previously the acting director. DSS was lead by a series of acting directors for the past five years.
Security Clearance Oversight Group (SCOG) issued an annual report to congress as required by Title III of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA). SCOG interpreted IRTPA interim requirements to apply only to initial clearance investigations opened on or after December 17, 2006, but used figures based on initial cases opened after October 1, 2006 in their report. The report stated that as of February 3, 2007, 64% of the 49,633 initial clearance investigations initiated by OPM during October 2006 were completed and projected that the December 2006 interim IRTPA requirements will be met.
March
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, approved emergency extension of Standard Forms 85, 85P, 85PS, and 86 until 30 Sep 08. OMB continues its 10-year reevaluation of the OPM federal clearance application forms and is considering major revisions to these forms. The current forms were last revised in September 1995.
April
Director of National Intelligence (DNI) announced a 100-Day Plan that includes development and implementation of security clearance process improvements, both within the Intelligence Community and at the national level. Also included was an emphasis on recruiting more first- and second-generation immigrants and slashing the time it takes candidates to navigate security procedures.
May
In testimony before congress, OMB reported that all investigations completed by OPM since October 2006 averaged 162 days and adjudication of OPM investigations since October 2006 took an average of 41 days (not including time to handoff applications to OPM and handoff investigative files to the adjudicative agencies). OPM received requests for 1.7 million background investigations (for employment and security clearances) in fiscal year 2006.
June
Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, stated that he would work “very aggressively” to get the mental health question removed from the security clearance application form (Standard Form 86). “Too many (military personnel) avoid seeking mental health help because of the fear of losing their security clearance,” he said. The main concern involves military personnel who need post-combat mental health care. The SF86 asks if applicants have received mental health counseling in the last 7 years and asks them to list the names, addresses and dates they saw a medical practitioner, if it involved something other than marital, family or grief counseling – the question, critics say, discourages troops from seeking treatment.
August
On 14 August the US Air Force, acting as the procurement agent for the DoD, DNI, and OMB, issued a “Security Clearance Process Reform-Request for Information (RFI)” with a submission cut off date of 3 Sep 07. The RFI solicited proposals from industry related to the development of a new government-wide end-to-end security clearance process. The objective is to develop a process, which will deliver high-assurance security clearance determinations in the least time at the lowest reasonable price based on risk management philosophy using cost effective technology in which the current Executive Orders and Statutes are challenged.
September
OPM requested a new GAO audit to verify the substantial progress it claims to have made in security clearance processing. The last GAO report in September 2006 (based on data collected in January and February 2006) was critical of OPM turnaround times.
In testimony before congress in September, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Mike McConnell, announced that a “transformed clearance process” had been designed and a plan to access the validity of the process had been developed. The ultimate goal is the comprehensive reform of the security clearance process. DNI hopes to deliver a high-assurance security clearances, fairly, efficiently, and at the lowest possible cost using new processes based on end-to-end automation, new sources of data, analytical research, and best practices.
October
DNI released a 500-day plan that restates (in slightly expanded terms) the goal contained in the 100-day plan of developing and implementing security clearance process improvements within the Intelligence Community that are applicable to the national reform effort. The initiative will gauge its success using the requirements within the IRTPA.
OPM claimed that 80 percent of its initial investigations of applicants are being finished in less than 70 days. That’s down from 80 percent in 121 days in fiscal 2006, and on its way to reaching the congressionally mandated goal of finishing 90 percent in 40 days or less. In fiscal year 2007 they completed about 86,000 investigations for initial Top Secret clearance, 621,000 investigations for initial Secret clearances, and 92,000 periodic reinvestigations.
November
OMB issues a memorandum on “Reciprocal Recognition of Existing Personnel Security Clearances,” dated: 14 Nov 07, that further defines security clearance reciprocity issues previously addressed in OMB Memoranda of 12 Dec 05 and 17 Jul 06.
Projections for 2008
In January the Congress should return a revised 2008 Defense Authorization Bill for the President’s signature. Section 1064 of the bill will repeal the Smith Amendment ((10 USC 986, which applied only to DoD), but create a new law prohibiting all federal agencies from granting or renewing any security clearance to:
– Current user of illegal drugs.
– Mentally incompetent person.
It also prohibits all federal agencies from granting or renewing special access authorizations (i.e. SCI and SAP) for anyone (without a waiver) who has been:
– Convicted of a crime, sentenced, and incarcerated for a term exceeding 1 year.
– Discharged or dismissed from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions.
Section 1065 of the bill requires DoD and DNI to implement a demonstration project that applies new and innovative approaches to improve the processing of requests for security clearances by June 2008. It further requires that they carry out an evaluation of the process for issuing security clearances and develop a specific plan and schedule for replacing such process with an improved process by December 2008.
In September, unless it approves another emergency extension, OMB will approve revised (probably longer) OPM clearance application forms (Standard Forms 85, 85P, 85PS, and 86). The new version of the SF86 will probably include a new separate section on foreign contacts, new section on misuse of information technology and expanded sections on financial records, use of alcohol, and foreign activities.
PERSEREC (Defense Personnel Security Research Center) projects like Automated Continuing Evaluation System (ACES), Phased Investigations, and Adjudication Decision Support (ADS) may be implemented within the new transformed security clearance process.
– ACES was developed for DoD as an automated method of assessing eligibility for access to classified information between initial investigations and periodic reinvestigations, but never implemented by DoD. It is now being viewed in terms of its potential for streamlining the expensive and time-consuming clearance process. It was adopted for use in the Department of Homeland Security in 2007 and will be implemented this year.
– Phased Investigations, first approved as an alternative to the Single Scope Background Investigation – Periodic Reinvestigation (SSBI-PR) for Top Secret clearances in 2004, are now being considered as an alternative to the initial SSBI. Use of a Phased SSBI could save 20% of investigative resources.
– ADS uses computer automation to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of granting/denying security clearances where only minor adverse information exists. The system will “e-Adjudicate” electronic results of Personnel Security Investigations eliminating the need for human adjudicative review of up to about 25% of all cases.
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