Yesterday the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) hosted a hearing on ‘Personnel Vetting, Security Clearance Reform, and Trusted Workforce 2.0.’ Defense and intelligence community leaders updated on security clearance reform progress overall, but a special focus was on the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS).
Sen. Mark Warner, a long-time security clearance reform advocate started the hearing by noting the many reform efforts he has been pushing for the past decade. He lamented the slow pace, although there are reform efforts that pre-date event the past decade. As long as there has been a security clearance process, there has been someone presenting an issue worthy of improvement.
Warner noted that the NBIS debacle, while significant, is not the only example of a major government technology imitative marred by screw ups. The clearance process has joined the likes of the veteran health system, student loan applications, and the health marketplace as examples of the government looking to provide a significant IT solution – and not rising to the task. Warner referred to it as a ‘disaster’ and questioned why the Senate, who had briefed on clearance reform last year, was just now coming to realize just how behind the program was.
“I know getting these systems is hard. But it shouldn’t be this hard,” said Warner.
A New Approach: Transparency and DoD-wide Collaboration
The hearing highlighted newly engaged roles for Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Milancy Harris and Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer Radha Plumb. Both are now creating new layers of accountability and technical support for the NBIS program. The CDAO was brought in as a part of the 90-day review and made several key recommendations toward the technical improvement of the program.
“We need a mindset shift,” said Plumb. She emphasized that software delivery never reaches a ‘discrete endpoint.’ and that the path for NBIS will require a constant devotion of time and resources around improving the technology.
DCSA Director David Cattler emphasized support for the new oversight and authorities granted to others, and increased interest in the NBIS delivery. He said the problem was not with the broader Trusted Workforce 2.0 reform efforts or milestones, but DCSA’s interpretation and making sure the agency had what they needed to implement it.
Sen. Warner reiterated that response, adding “DCSA did not have the technical knowledge,” for the task it took on in creating NBIS and overhauling the breached OPM legacy systems.
And while scrapping NBIS has been on the table as the program looked for a way ahead, leaders testifying expressed confidence in the progress that will come in the next 18 months.
“We’re not starting over, “ said Harris.
