2009 Security Clearance News - Year in Review

Security Clearance News – Year in Review

January

Executive Order 13488 – Granting Reciprocity on Excepted Service and Federal Contractor Employee Fitness and Reinvestigating Individuals in Positions of Public Trust. This E.O. made reinvestigations mandatory for public trust positions and made the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) responsible for establishing reinvestigation standards. It also permits federal agencies to reciprocally accept prior fitness or suitability determinations in very limited circumstances. E.O. 13488 is distinct from but complements E.O. 13467 (June 2008) concerning alignment of security and suitability standards.

Contract Adjudicators at Army CCF – According to an article at www.army.mil, 89 contract security clearance adjudicators augmented the US Army Central Clearance Facility (CCF) staff of 159 personnel to help reduce their backlog of cases. CCF received 295,000 cases in 2008—a 200% increase over the 101,000 they received in 2005. This action to speed up clearances was driven by the requirements of Title III of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.

February

SWFT – Secure Web Fingerprint Transmission. The SWFT system contract was awarded to ATS Corporation by the Defense Security Service (DSS) for the development, deployment and maintenance of a web-enabled biometric system to transmit electronic fingerprints to DSS and OPM. The SWFT system will enable federal contractors to submit electronic fingerprints and identifying information for security clearance applicants. A pilot project for the system was conducted in 2008. Implementation and deployment of the new system will begin later in 2009.

eAdjudication – Following a successful pilot program that began in November 2008, the Army Central Clearance Facility fully implemented eAdjudication of Secret clearances. The system electronically screens and adjudicates investigations for Secret clearances, resulting in favorable clearance determinations in about 32% of the cases.

March

IRTPA Security Clearance Report – The 2008 annual report to Congress as required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) was submitted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. This year’s report was made up of 2 documents submitted in late 2008 plus updated clearance data covering the First Quarter of FY09. Average end-to-end elapse time for the top 90% of initial clearances averaged 104 days for non-intelligence community agencies and 71 days for intelligence community agencies. As of January OPM had 1,671 investigations that were more than 140 days old.

Enterprise IT Strategy – The Joint Security Suitability Reform Team finalized its strategy for information technology (i.e. automated record checks, eApplications, digital signatures, and imaged fingerprints) to support the reformed security and suitability process.

April

Clearance Processing Statistics – DSS and OPM presentations at the National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee April meeting included data on 1st Quarter FY09 clearance processing. Average end-to-end processing time for all initial clearances for defense contractor personnel was 134 days. The fastest 90% of initial clearances averaged 97 days. Top Secret clearances averaged 159 and the fastest 90% averaged 120 days. Secret clearances averaged 128 days and the fastest 90% averaged 92 days. As of the end of February 2009 there were 8,049 pending cases for adjudication at DISCO and 28,106 Industry investigations pending at OPM.

Investigators Caught Falsifying Reports – A Washington Post article reported that 6 investigators conducting security clearance checks for the federal government were charged with falsifying investigative reports. The investigators worked directly or indirectly for OPM’s Federal Investigative Services Division. In the past OPM handled such problems internally; however, OPM wanted to send a message by prosecuting the offenders instead of simply firing them. A follow up article by the FederalTimes.com reported that 53 federal and contract investigators have falsified security clearance investigations since 2005. All of them were either fired or left their jobs, and six were prosecuted within the last year.

Collocation of DoD CAFs – An IMCOM Fort Meade newsletter article report that construction began for a new 151,590-square-foot building in Fort Meade, MD that will house all 10 DoD Central Adjudication Facilities—Army, Navy, Air Force, DISCO/DOHA, DIA, NSA, JSC, WHS, NRO, and NGA. Although the CAFs will remain separate entities; this “virtual” consolidation should enhance standardization.

May

GAO Report 09-400 – Comprehensive timeliness reporting, complete clearance documentation, and quality measures are needed to further improve the clearance process. According to OPM and DoD, the top 90% of initial security clearances for DoD personnel took an average of 124 days to process in 2008. GAO measured processing time using 100% of initial clearances and focused on the 39% of cases that took more than 120 days. GAO also found that 87% of Top Secret clearances adjudicated in July 2008 was missing one or more elements required by the national investigative standards. The report was a follow-up to a December 2008 GAO report (09-261R).

GAO Report 09-488 – Personnel Security Clearances: An Outcome-Focused Strategy Is Needed to Guide Implementation of the Reformed Clearance Process. This report made several recommendations for establishing a strategic framework for the joint reform effort, including clearer goals, outcome-focused performance measures, formal communications strategy, further definition of roles and responsibilities for implementation of IT strategy, and determining funding requirements.

Security Clearance Governance Structure, Goals, and Standards – The OPM response to GAO-09-488 stated, “OPM believes that it is important not to conflate the suitability and security clearance processes. . . both processes should be administered efficiently and aligned where appropriate. The means by which these goals are accomplished, however—whether through the governance structure established by Executive Order 13467 (and studied by the GAO) or in some other fashion—is currently under review by the new Administration, as are the reform initiatives discussed in the draft report. This review may result in a new governance structure and/or new goals and standards.”

DHS IG Report OIG-09-65 – The DHS Personnel Security Process. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that “Department of Homeland Security personnel security offices are performing similar functions but use different policies throughout the personnel security process. Across the department, components strive to provide quality results in a timely manner but often are delayed by applicants, overwhelmed by customer service requests, restricted by database functions, and limited by information availability.” The report made 20 recommendations to improve the Department of Homeland Security’s personnel security process, including some recommendations to consolidate security functions. DHS has been phasing in the use of a new department-wide, web-based system to manage investigations and clearances to replace the 9 separate systems used by component agencies. Currently about half the components of DHS have authority to conduct their own clearance investigations and use a variety of government and contractor resources for doing them.

July

Clearance Processing Statistics – DSS and OPM presentations at the National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee July meeting included data on 3rd Quarter FY09 clearance processing. Average end-to-end processing time for all initial clearances for defense contractor personnel was 106 days (including SCI). The fastest 90% of initial clearances averaged 77 days. Top Secret clearances averaged 134 and the fastest 90% averaged 107 days. Secret and Confidential clearances averaged 98 days and the fastest 90% averaged 69 days. As of the end of May there were 3,984 pending cases for adjudication at DISCO and 27,945 Industry investigations pending at OPM.

August

Cost of OPM Investigations – OPM announced (FIN No. 09-05) that rates for investigative services in Fiscal Year 2010 would not be increased from Fiscal Year 2009 levels.

SWFT – Secure Web Fingerprint Transmission. This web-enabled biometric system became available to defense contractors to transmit electronic fingerprints to DSS and OPM for security clearance applicants. Participating federal contractors are responsible for procuring their own equipment.

CATS – Case Adjudication Track System. CATS pilot program was initiated at the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO). CATS, which was developed by DoD, allows for electronic case receipt from OPM and an electronic screening and adjudication. It is projected that CATS will reduce case receipt time to 4 to 7 days. DISCO estimates that it takes about 10 to 15 days to receive a case by mail from OPM. CATS will use OPM’s eDelivery system that electronically sends completed investigative files to a customer agency in a condensed encrypted ZIP file via an approved secure connection.

September

Congressional Hearing on Security Clearance Reform – OMB, OPM, DoD, ODNI, and GAO representatives testified at a hearing before a Senate subcommittee responsible for oversight of the Federal government’s security clearance reform process. Prepared statements contained the following information:

90% of initial clearance investigations by OPM are done in an average of 37 days.
Average investigation for a Top Secret clearance now takes 79 days.
Average investigation for a Secret clearance now takes 40 days.
Security clearance investigation backlog (cases older than 180 days) has been eliminated.
11% of initial clearance eligibility decisions took more than 300 days to complete in FY08.
260,000 of the estimated 3 million active security clearances are currently in OPM’s Clearance Verification System.
The new Federal Investigative Standards that were approved in December 2008 (but not implement) will be changed.
The new SF86, originally expected to be approved by January 2009, will not be available for public comment until late September 2009 (a lengthy process required before final approval).
Long-term funding requirements for the reformed process still have not been identified.

New Standard Form 86 – OPM submitted a proposed revision of Standard Form 86 (SF86), Questionnaire for National Security Positions, for 30-day public review and comment. The proposed revision of the SF86 eliminates all references to the SSBI and its requirement for 10 years worth of information. Questions are limited to 7 years, except for those that ask “have you ever.” The proposed SF86 also expands on questions regarding dual citizenship, foreign activities, mental health, and police record. OPM also issued a related Matrix of Changes.

Guidance on Implementing Executive Order 13488 —Issued by OPM, this guidance addresses only reciprocity of fitness/suitability determinations required by E.O. The reinvestigation requirement for public trust positions will be established through a change to 5 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 731.

e-Adjudication – The Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO) began electronic adjudication of Secret clearances. This follows implementation of eAdjudication at the Army Central Clearance Facility in February.

October

Clearance Processing Statistics – DSS and OPM presentations at the National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee October meeting included data for July and August 2009. Average end-to-end timeliness data for the fastest 90% of initial clearances for defense contractor personnel were 82 days for July and 84 days for August. Average end-to-end timeliness data for the fastest 90% of initial Top Secret clearances were 119 days for July and 118 days for August. Average end-to-end timeliness data for the fastest 90% of Secret and Confidential clearances were 76 days for July and 75 days for August. As of the end of July there were 8, 027 pending cases for adjudication at DISCO and 27,522 Industry investigations pending at OPM.

November

Reinvestigations for Public Trust Positions – OPM issued proposed changes to 5 CFR part 731 to partially implement the January 2009 requirement under Executive Order 13488 to reinvestigate individuals in Moderate- and High-Risk Public Trust positions. The proposed changes would require that a “covered” person occupying a public trust position be reinvestigated at least once every five years. The proposed changes did not specify the scope of the reinvestigation. “Covered” persons are those that hold a position in the competitive service, a position in the excepted service where the incumbent can be noncompetitively converted to the competitive service, and a career appointment to a position in the Senior Executive Service. The proposed changes therefore do not apply to contractor personnel and most excepted service personnel.

Foreign Passports – The Defense Security Service issued a policy alert entitled, Foreign Passport: Disposition Influences Personnel Clearance Eligibility. “DISCO will not grant or continue a personnel clearance if the clearance applicant or cleared individual possesses a current foreign passport. In instances where the foreign passport is the sole potential disqualifying factor in the personnel clearance adjudication . . . if DISCO receives reliable documentary evidence that the foreign passport has been destroyed, invalidated, or surrendered, DISCO will grant or continue the clearance . . . .”

December

Security Clearance Modernization and Reporting Act of 2009 – Introduced in the Senate, this bill would codify many of the provisions of Executive Order 13467 of June 2008 and create detailed reporting requirements on the status of the security and suitability clearance reform process.