A security clearance timeline of notable events that occurred impacting the security clearance process. From 2008 to 2013
Security clearance policy changes, congressional reforms, and updated adjudicative guidelines make it hard to stay current on security clearance requirements and regulations. The security clearance changes noted in the timeline below lists the updates you need to know when it comes to security clearance policy and procedure. The DSS Stakeholders report, ODNI Annual Report to Congress, Federal Investigations Notices and changes to the SF-86 are all included in the interactive timeline. Take a look to see how the process has changed, and what you need to know about security clearance policy today. The information used in the timeline was assembled by William Henderson, a retired federal clearance investigator, President of Federal Clearance Assistance Service (FEDCAS), author of Security Clearance Manual and Issue Mitigation Handbook, and a regular contributor to ClearanceJobs.com. Further information can be found in our security clearance annual year in reviews – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 reviews.
REFERENCE:
| Date | Subject | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2007 | OPM increased their combined total (federal and contractor) field staff involved in PSI to about 7,300. | 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. |
| 2/2007 | Kathleen Watson was named Director of the Defense Security Service (DSS) | 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. |
| 2/2007 | SCOG issued an annual report to congress as required by IRTPA | 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. |
| 3/2007 | OMB approved emergency extension of Standard Forms 85, 85P, 85PS, and 86 until 30 Sep 08. | 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. |
| 4/2007 | DNI announced a 100-Day Plan that includes implementation of security clearance process improvements, | 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. |
| 5/2007 | OMB reported that all investigations completed by OPM since October 2006 averaged 162 days | 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. |
| 6/2007 | Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, stated that he would work “very aggressively” to get the mental health question removed from SF86. | 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. |
| 8/2007 | US Air Force issued a “Security Clearance Process Reform-Request for Information (RFI)” | 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. |
| 9/2007 | OPM requested a new GAO audit to verify claims of improvements to have made in security clearance processing. | 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. |
| 9/2007 | DNI announced “transformed clearance process” | 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. |
| 10/2007 | DNI released a 500-day plan that restates the goal contained in the 100-Day Plan | 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. |
| 10/2007 | OPM claimed that 80% of its initial investigations of applicants are being finished in less than 70 days. | 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. |
| 11/2007 | OMB issues a memorandum on “Reciprocal Recognition of Existing Personnel Security Clearances” | 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. |
| 3/2008 | Smith Amendment was repealed and replaced by Bond Amendment | Smith Amendment (10 USC 986) was repealed and replaced by Bond Amendment (50 USC 435b, Section 3002) prohibiting all federal agencies from granting or renewing any security clearance for a current user of illegal drugs. The new law further prohibits all federal agencies from granting or renewing special access authorizations (i.e. SCI, SAP, and Restricted Data) for anyone (without a waiver) who has been: 1) convicted of a crime and incarcerated for a term exceeding one year, 2) discharged or dismissed from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions, or 3) found to be mentally incompetent. The Smith Amendment applied only to people affiliated with the Department of Defense (DoD), whereas the new law applies to everyone. |
| 2/2008 | Presidental request for proposal to modernize security clearance, and suitability processes. | President Bush issued a memorandum to all executive branch departments and agencies directing that DoD, Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and assistant to the President for National Security Affairs submit a proposal by April 30, 2008 to modernize, standardize, and integrate comprehensive credentialing, security clearance, and suitability processes. |
| 2/2008 | The Security Clearance Oversight Group (SCOG) issued it’s 2008 report to Congress | The Security Clearance Oversight Group (SCOG) issued it’s 2008 report to Congress regarding compliance with Title III of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA). The report when read together with OPM’s testimony before Congress presented a relatively complete picture of the progress made during the past year. OPM reported significant improvement in turnaround times for initial clearance investigations received during Fiscal Year 2007. |
| 3/2008 | GAO to evaluate of IC security clearance processes | Congress sent a request to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) asking for a formal evaluation of Intelligence Community security clearance processes and the DNI’s pilot project for security clearance reform. The request was submitted by Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management, and Representative Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. |
| 4/2008 | JSSRT issued its “Initial Report” | The Joint Security and Suitability Reform Team (JSSRT) issued its “Initial Report” in response to the President’s February memorandum on Security Clearances. The President’s memo directed a proposal to not only modernize the security clearance process, but to also integrate the clearance processes for national security, employment suitability, and access to federally controlled facilities. The Initial Report presented a reform proposal that outlined reform concepts and strategies. |
| 4/2008 | Question #21 regarding mental health on SF86 | A DoD memorandum announced that Question #21 regarding mental health on Standard Form 86 (Questionnaire for National Security Positions) was changed. The announced change allows an applicant to answer “no” to the question regarding mental health counseling or treatment, if the counseling or treatment (including hospitalization) was not court-ordered and was for: 1) strictly marital, family, grief not related to violence by you, or 2) strictly related to adjustments from service in a military combat environment. The memorandum was applicable only to personnel affiliated with DoD. |
| 5/2008 | Federal Investigations Notice No. 08-01 | OPM issued Federal Investigations Notice No. 08-01 promulating the same instructions regarding Question #21 of Standard Form 86 announced in the April DoD memorandum (see above), clearly making the change applicable to all clearance applicants, not just DoD personnel. |
| 5/2008 | Security Clearance Reform Activitiy Milestones | A presentation on the activities of the JSSRT was given by John Fitzpatrick, Director of the Office of the DNI Special Security Center, at the Information Technology Association of America “Security Clearance Reform” meeting in Arlington, VA. The most significant part of Fitzpatrick’s presentation was a list of reform activitiy milestones. |
| 5/2008 | Testimony by OMB, OPM, DNI and DoD on security clearance process | Testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee by representatives of OMB, OPM, DNI and DoD regarding progress in improving the security clearance process included more retoric about reform and updated statistics on investigative elapse times. |
| 6/2008 | Executive Order 13467 | President Bush issued Executive Order 13467 (Reforming Processes Related to Suitability for Government Employment, Fitness for Contractor Employees, and Eligibility for Access to Classified National Security Information). It could be the most significant E.O. regarding the federal government’s personnel security program in over a decade, if the DNI uses the broad new authority granted to him to create a logical monolithic process out of the current morass of incongruent policies and practices. |
| 7/2008 | GAO identified four areas that the executive order and the Initial Plan failed to properly address. | GAO presented testimony (GAO-08-1050T) before the House Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management on “Personnel Security Clearances: Preliminary Observations on Joint Reform Efforts to Improve the Governmentwide Clearance Eligibility Process.” GAO’s observations and recommendation were based on the recently issued JSSRT Initial Plan and E.O. 13467. GAO’s review was generally laudatory, but identified four areas that the executive order and the Initial Plan failed to properly address. |
| 8/2008 | DIA intention to use contractors to conduct polygraph examination | Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) intention to use contractors to conduct polygraph examinations for security clearances was reported in the Washington Post on August 23, 2008. The AP story stated, “An unclassified DIA document describing the new effort says the contractor hired to perform the exams will conduct a minimum of 4,550 a year in 13 new polygraph studios. Those 13 new studios would be added to the eight now manned by DIA polygraphers. All would be overseen by DIA personnel.” |
| 8/2008 | OPM posted a new version of the SF86 | OPM posted a new version of the Standard Form 86 (Questionnaire for National Security Positions) on the public portion of its website. The new form, which is 21 pages long (including general instructions and releases), is 8 pages longer than the previous version of the form. A new section on “Use of Information Technology Systems” was added and the sections on “Foreign Contacts,” “Foreign Activities,” “Financial Record,” “Use of Alcohol,” and “Association Record” were expanded. The wording of many question and their specific instructions changed and new data fields have been added throughout the form. |
| 9/2008 | Federal Investigations Notice No. 08-04 | OPM issued Federal Investigations Notice No. 08-04 establishing new prices for their investigations in Fiscal Year 2009. The costs of the most common investigations increased between 4.5% and 6.1%. Government agencies requesting investigations pay OPM for the vast majority of these investigations. Only a few federal contractors are required to pay OPM for the investigations on their personnel. |
| 9/2008 | OPM presented updated statistical data on investigative elapse times | OPM presented updated statistical data to the House Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management. Inwritten remarks Kathy Dillaman, OPM Associate Director Federal Investigative Services Division (FISD) provided data on investigative elapse times that showed very little change between Fiscal Year 2007 and the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2008. |
| 9/2008 | “Automated Clearance Adjudication” | In their written remarks to the House Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management, John Fitzpatrick, Acting Assistant Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Security and Elizabeth McGrath, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Business Transformation reported that “Automated Clearance Adjudication” (eAdjudication) of clean cases for Secret clearances will begin at selected adjudication facilities by the end of the year. About 25% of Secret clearances will be eligible for eAdjudication. This is expected to speed up the process by allowing adjudicators to spend their time on more complex cases. |
| 10/2008 | Intelligence Community Directive (ICD)Number 704, “Personnel Security Standards And Procedures…” | DNI issued new standards for SCI eligibility by promulgating Intelligence Community Directive (ICD)Number 704, “Personnel Security Standards And Procedures Governing Eligibility For Access To Sensitive Compartmented Information And Other Controlled Access Program Information.” ICD 704 recinded DCID 6/4, which previously governed SCI eligibility. Additionally DNI issued 5 related Intelligence Community Policy Guidance (ICPG 704.1 thru ICPG 704.5) documents that provide instructions for implementing ICD 704. |
| 10/2008 | Dept of Navy will adjudicate investigations of Navy contractor personnel who are being considered for public trust positions | Department of Navy issued a policy letter that their Central Adjudication Facility will adjudicate investigations of Navy contractor personnel who are US citizens and are being considered for public trust positions that do not require a security clearance. DISCO/DOHA previously adjudicated these cases. |
| 10/2008 | Security Clearance Oversight and Accountability Act (H.R. 7259) was introduced in the US House of Representatives. | The Security Clearance Oversight and Accountability Act (H.R. 7259) was introduced in the US House of Representatives. The bill would require the Presedent to submit a quadrennial audit of how agencies determine the need for security clearances. It also would require annual reports on the total number of existing clearances, the number of clearance issued during the previous year, and the number and age of pending investigations, as well as standards and quality metrics for adjudication, investigation, and reciprocity. (H.R. 7259 was reintroduced in the 111th Congress as H.R. 639.) |
| 11/2008 | Security Clearance Reform—Upgrading the Gateway to the National Security Community.” | The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence issued House Report 110-916, “Security Clearance Reform—Upgrading the Gateway to the National Security Community.” The report measured the government’s compliance with the IRTPA in seven areas. The overall tone of the report was critical, stating, “progress over the past five years has been disappointing.” Even in the areas where the Administration was found to have met the IRTPA requirements, the report complained of missed deadlines and creative interpretation of IRTPA wording. |
| 12/2008 | GAO report on timeliness and quality of the DoD personnel security clearance program | A preliminary assessment of the timeliness and quality of the DoD personnel security clearance program presented in a report by GAO found that in fiscal year 2008 OPM completed 80% of all initial clearance investigations in 87 days. Although this represented a significant improvement over prior years, the existing clearance process may not be able to meet the December 2009 IRTPA requirement of 90% in 60 days. GAO also found that an estimated 87% of the OPM investigations in July 2008 for Top Secret clearances were missing at least one investigative element required by federal standards. |
| 12/2008 | DNI and OPM approved new 3-tier investigative standards for suitability and security clearance investigations. | DNI and OPM approved new 3-tier investigative standards for suitability and security clearance investigations. The new investigative standards were described in the JSSRT December 2008 follow up report on process reform. The implementation plan for the new investigative standards is scheduled to be finalized in March 2009 with incremental implementation thereafter and full implementation by late summer 2010. The JSSRT report provided details on reform effort accomplishments and dates for implementation of various other components of the new process, including eApplication, Automated Record Checks, eAdjudication, and Continuous Evaluation |
| 3/2009 | 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. |
| 3/2009 | 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. |
| 2/2009 | 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. |
| 2/2009 | 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. |
| 3/2009 | 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. |
| 3/2009 | 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. |
| 4/2009 | 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. |
| 4/2009 | 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. |
| 4/2009 | 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. |
| 5/2009 | 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). |
| 5/2009 | 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. |
| 5/2009 | 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.” |
| 5/2009 | 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. |
| 7/2009 | 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. |
| 8/2009 | 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. |
| 8/2009 | 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. |
| 8/2009 | 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. |
| 9/2009 | 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. |
| 9/2009 | 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. |
| 9/2009 | 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. |
| 10/2009 | 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. |
| 11/2009 | 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. |
| 11/2009 | 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 . . . .” |
| 12/2009 | 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. |
| 3/2010 | Annual Report on PSI-I and the NISP | The “Annual Report to Congress on Personnel Security Investigations for Industry and the National Industrial Security Program” provided statistical data for defense contractor security clearance processing during Fiscal Year (FY) 2009. Notably there was a 28% increase in the number of interim security clearances granted by the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO). There was a 9% increase in pending adjudications, a 15% reduction in pending initial investigations, a 41% reduction in pending Top Secret Periodic Reinvestigations, and an 18% reduction in the average end-to-end processing time for the fastest 90% of initial clearances. |
| 3/2010 | DHS Inspector General’s Report | Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General’s Office released areport outlined 15 recommendations to improve the department’s implementation of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12), Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors (August 2004). HSPD-12 mandated that federal agencies issue secure federal “Personal Identity Verification” cards by October 2008. As of September 2009 only 15,567 of the approximately 250,000 DHS employees and contractors had been issued PIV cards. |
| 2/2010 | Security And Suitability Process Reform: Strategic Framework | The Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council submitted its annual report to Congress in compliance with the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA). The report claimed to have met the IRTPA requirement that 90% of all security clearances be completed in an average 60 days. The report laid out 7 strategic goals and 7 process modules to achieve the overall process reform goals, but there was no mention of the previously announced revision to the investigative standards needed to properly use 5 of the process modules. |
| 3/2010 | New SF86 Approved by OMB | The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved a new version of the Standard Form 86—SF86 (Questionnaire for National Security Positions). The new SF86 contains more branching questions than the previous version. The only available description of the new form is a PDF file, consisting of 453 pages of explanations and screen shots of the Electronic Questionnaire for Investigations Processing (e-QIP) version. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has not yet posted the new form at their website. The last revision of the SF86 was approved in July 2008. OPM did not post that version of the form on their website until October 2008, and the e-QIP version was not available for use by contractors until January 2009. |
| 3/2010 | Industrial Security Clearance Processing Statistics | A Defense Security Service (DSS) presentation at the National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee (NISPPAC) March meeting included data for 1st quarter FY2010 and January 2010 on defense contractor clearance processing. Average end-to-end processing for all contractor initial security clearances was 99 days (78 days for the fastest 90%) in 1st quarter FY2010. SF86 error rejection rate for the same period was about 11% with small contractor and non-possessing facilities experiencing 29% to 52% rejection rates. |
| 3/32010 | The Security Clearance and Investigation Process | OPM released this presentation, which as the title indicates gives a overview of the security clearance and investigation process. It also includes a chart on case data. During FY2009, OPM had 636,873 initial security clearance investigations, slightly less than the previous year. There was a 7 fold increase in Public Trust investigations in FY2009 as compared to FY2005. The number of basic suitability/credentialing investigations declined significantly from previous years. |
| 4/2010 | Case Adjudication Tracking System (CATS) | CATS became fully operational at the Air Force Central Adjudication Facility (CAF). CATS enables Department of Defense (DOD) CAFs to electronically receive completed investigative files from OPM and eAdjudicate selected cases. CATS was previously implemented at the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO), Army, Navy, and Washington Headquarters Services CAFs and cut case transfer time in half. Prior to CATS, investigative files were mailed from OPM to these DOD CAFs. |
| 6/2010 | Period Reinvestigations of Contractor Personnel | DSS announced that DISCO will identify and subsequently notify National Industrial Security Program (NISP) cleared contractor facilities of cleared personnel who are due or overdue for a Periodic Reinvestigation (PR). If the contractor facility fails to submit the requested SF86 to DISCO within 60 days, clearance eligibility will be removed and the Facility Security Officer notified. Clearance eligibility will be reinstated upon submission of the required information. |
| 7/2010 | Transfer of DOD Personnel Security IT Systems | The Defense Central Index of Investigations (DCII) was transferred from DSS to the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC). This completed the tranfer of DOD Personnel Security IT Systems from DSS to DMDC. Previously the Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS), the Secure Web Fingerprint Transmission (SWFT), and the improved Investigative Records Repository (iIRR) were transferred from DSS to DMDC. These systems will eventually be integrated into the Defense Information Systems for Security (DISS) along with the Industrial Security Facility Database (ISFD) and Educational Network Registration and On-Line Learning (ENROL). DISS also provides Automated Records Check (ARC) and eAdjudication functionality and will become the single point of entry for DOD personnel security. |
| 7/2010 | Automated Record Check (ARC) | ARC initial operating capability for selected populations was implemented. ARC utilizes applicant data to collect relevant information available through government and commercial databases and flag issues for investigative purposes. It is one of the seven process modules of the clearance reform effort. |
| 8/2010 | New Director of National Intelligence (DNI) | James Clapper was confirmed by the Senate and assumed the position of DNI on August 9. He was previously Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and led the DOD clearance reform effort. Clapper replaced acting Director David C. Gompert who returned to his position as Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence. The former DNI, Dennis C. Blair, resigned in May 2010. In addition to his primary duties of advising the President on intelligence matters, heading the 16 member Intelligence Community, and directing the National Intelligence Program, the DNI has policy and oversight authority for all executive branch security clearance processing. |
| 9/2010 | Cost of Security/Suitability Investigations | OPM published new prices for their standard investigative products for FY2011. With one exception the prices of the most common investigations increased 3%. The Minimum Background Investigation (MBI), now renamed the Moderate Risk Background Investigation, increased 20% for priority handling and 27% for standard service. OPM discontinued the Limited Background Investigation (LBI), the Public Trust Special Background Investigation (PTSBI) and the Periodic Reinvestigation and Residence Coverage (PRIR), as well as various special upgrades and updates to standard investigations. The new Enhanced Subject Interview (ESI) replaced the Personal Subject Interview (PRSI), a standard component of many investigations. |
| 10/2010 | Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 | After resolving differences with the Senate version, the House version (HR 2701) of the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) was signed by the President and became Public Law No: 111-259. It establishes the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community and requires detailed annual reporting on security clearances, as well as feasibility studies on reducing the number of investigative and adjudicative agencies. (This is the first IAA to become law since 2004; others either died in Congress or were successfully vetoed.) |
| 11/2010 | New Defense Security Service Director | Stanley L. Sims became the Director of the Defense Security Service (DSS). He replaced Acting Director Barry Sterling, who will remain with DSS in his previous capacity as the Chief Financial Officer. The former director, Kathy Watson, retired from government service in October. Mr. Sims previously held a two-year post as Director of Security in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. In that capacity, he served as the DOD senior performance goal leader for the personnel security reform effort to support requirements of the IRTPA. |
| 11/2010 | Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Security Clearance Reform | The Director of National Intelligence, the Director of OPM, and representatives from DOD, OMB, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) provided updated information on security clearance reform at a hearing before a Senate subcommittee. OPM provided the following data for initial security clearance investigations only (data do not include initiation and adjudication time): |
| 12/2010 | WikiLeaks | Numerous news sources reported that OMB sent a memo to federal agencies forbidding unauthorized federal employees and contractors from accessing classified documents publicly available on WikiLeaks and other websites. Other news stories reported that university students were advised not to viewed classified information at WikiLeaks, because it could result in the denial of a security clearance in the future. |
| 12/2010 | House Subcommittee Hearing on Security Clearance Reform | Testimony was heard from representatives of GAO, OMB, ODNI, DOD, and OPM. GAO’s testimony was presented in the form of a report (GAO-11-232T) entitled: “Personnel Security Clearances: Overall Progress Has Been Made to Reform the Governmentwide Security Clearance Process.” The report covered the 3 major long standing security clearance issues: a single federal database for clearance information, reciprocity, and timeliness. |
| 12/2010 | Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010 | Congress passed the 2010 Anti-Border Corruption Act (S. 3243) affecting polygraph examinations and periodic reinvestigations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) law enforcement officers (LEO). It became law on January 4, 2011 and directs the Department of Homeland Security to comply with its own regulation that requires all CBP LEO applicants to receive a polygraph examination and background investigation before hiring and a periodic reinvestigation every 5 years. In 2009 less than 15% of CBP LEO applicants received polygraph exams and as of March 2010 CBP had a backlog of approximately 10,000 periodic reinvestigations. |
| 12/2010 | Rollout of New SF86 | OPM announced that in February 2011 they will begin a phased implementation of the e-QIP version of the new SF86. A copy of the new SF86, which was approved in March 2010, has not yet been posted to the OPM forms website, but was to be distributed to other investigations service providers before the end of December. The last version (July 2008) of the SF86 was phased in over a period of about 5 months from September 2008 to January 2009. |
| 3/2011 | OPM announced the roll-out of the New SF86 | The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced that in February they will begin a phased implementation of the Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing (e-QIP) version of the new Questionnaire for National Security Positions (Standard Form 86—SF86) that was approved by the Office of Management and Budget in March 2010. The last version (July 2008) of the SF86 was phased in over a period of about 5 months from September 2008 to January 2009. DOD contractor personnel were among the last to begin using the form. |
| 3/2011 | Cybervetting | The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) released a report on their yearlong study of police cybervetting policy, “Developing a Cybervetting Strategy for Law Enforcement.” The report was a collaborative effort by the IACP and the Defense Personnel Security Research Center (PERSEREC). PERSEREC produced a separate report, “Developing a Cybervetting Strategy for National Security Positions,” in part from the same study, but it will not be available to the public. |
| 3/2011 | NASA v. Nelson | The Supreme Court of the United States published its 8-0 decision regarding “NASA v. Nelson.” It reversed and remanded the decision of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to grant a preliminary injunction against NASA enforcement of Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credentialing required under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 for contractor personnel who occupy non-sensitive, low-risk positions. 28 contractors working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory filed suit against the U.S. Government claiming that the National Agency Check with Inquiries (NACI) investigation used to determine eligibility for PIV credentialing violated their right to “informational privacy.” A U.S. District Court initially denied their request for a preliminary injunction, but the injunction was later granted by the 9th Circuit Court. |
| 2/2011 | GAO Issues Update to High Risk Programs | In its biannual report (GAO-11-278) to Congress on Government High Risk programs, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported removal of The Department of Defense (DOD) Personnel Security Program from its list of High Risk Programs, because of improvements to the program since it was first placed on the list in 2005. |
| 2/2011 | Improvements to the DOD Personnel Security Process | DOD announced improvements to its personnel security clearance process. “Over the past four years, the DoD has worked with the Director of National Intelligence, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Office of Personnel Management to streamline processes, make changes to policies, introduce extensive information technology improvements, and eliminate a backlog of approximately 100,000 pending cases. These improvements led to a 72 percent reduction in the time it takes to process an individual’s security clearance – from an average of 165 days in 2006 to 47 days today.” |
| 3/32011 | Annual Report on PSI-I and the NISP | DOD released its “Annual Report to Congress on Personnel Security Investigations for Industry and the National Industrial Security Program” for fiscal year 2010. Produced by the Defense Security Service (DSS), it’s one of the more useful periodic reports containing data on security clearance processing and the only report that provides information about interim clearances. The report showed that the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO) lost ground in FY2010. DISCO started the year with 9,596 cases pending and ended the year with 17,936 cases pending, even though it opened 5,687 fewer cases than it did in the previous year and granted 5,900 Secret clearances using eAdjudication. According to the report, operational productivity declined due to personnel problems related to the scheduled relocation of DISCO from Columbus, OH to Fort Meade, MD by August 2011. |
| 3/32011 | NISPPAC Report | The National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee (NISPPAC) is made up of representatives from Government and industry and meets two to three times a year. Meetings usually include presentations by DSS and OPM on industrial security clearance processing metrics. The March meeting also included a presentation by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on the activities of the Joint Suitability and Security Clearance Reform Team. Overall the report of their March 2011 meeting contained no surprises, but some interesting trends and anomalies were apparent. Since last year end-to-end processing time for Top Secret (TS) Periodic Reinvestigations (PR) increased, but DISCO’s inventory of TSPRs pending adjudication dropped from a high of 4,372 in September 2010 to 266 in February 2011. DSS officials could provide no explanation. In an interesting comment on eAdjudication, the Director of DSS stated that the eAdjudication process at other DOD Central Adjudication Facilities handles 28% to 34% of investigations for Secret clearances; whereas, only 4% of DISCO Secret clearances are adjudicated electronically. |
| 4/2011 | BRAC Impact on Security Clearance Adjudication | Under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process,10 DOD Central Adjudication Facilities (CAFs) began moving from their current locations to a newly constructed building at Fort Meade, MD. To varying degrees BRAC will cause most of the CAFs to experience higher than normal personnel attrition rates this year. This could in turn increase the average amount of time it takes to adjudicate a security clearance. Two of the affected agencies, DISCO and DOHA, will be moving from Columbus, OH. These two agencies have already lost a large number of personnel and anticipate losing more people by the time all of the agencies are required to complete the move in September 2011. DSS has taken steps to reduce the backlog that will be created by the move and by the loss of experienced adjudicators. The other DOD CAFs will be less affected by the move due to their current proximity to Fort Meade. |
| 5/2011 | DSS Stakeholders Report 2011 | DSS released its “Stakeholder Report 2011,” summarizing its history and mission and detailing its recent achievements and notable cases. The report includes some statistical data for fiscal year 2010. Of interest to most cleared contractor personnel is a brief explanation of “Incident Reports” and how they are handled by DISCO. An Incident Report is submitted whenever a company Facility Security Officer becomes aware of adverse information concerning a cleared employee. “DISCO receives about 8,000 incident reports a year and typically recommends about 120 interim suspensions a year to the DSS Director.” |
| 6/2011 | DSS Guide to New SF86 | DSS posted “A Quick Reference Guide for the Newly Updated Standard Form 86” (QRG). “This QRG contains detailed field descriptions, step-by-step instructions, and a link to a printable form to help you determine what information you need to gather.” The QRG provides 15 pages of detailed instructions for completing the SF86—much more comprehensive than anything previously published by DSS or OPM. |
| 6/2011 | NISPPAC Report | The report of the June 2011 NISPPAC meeting included statistics on industrial security clearance processing. Average end-to-end elapse time for initial Top Secret and all Secret/Confidential clearances was 92 days in March 2011—slightly higher than the preceding 10 months. Adjudication time decreased, but investigation time increased. The inventories of both initial clearance investigations and periodic reinvestigations at DISCO have declined since the October 2010, and there has been a steady state for the inventory of industry cases at OPM. Case rejection rate for inaccurate/incomplete SF86s at DISCO remained in the 9% to 11% range and resulted in a 15 to 30 day processing delay. Case rejection rate at OPM has been about 5% and can add as much as 6 months to clearance processing time. |
| 8/2011 | DSS Deployment of New SF86 | DSS announced that effective on August 29, 2011 as part of a Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS) release update (version 4.3.0.0), the new 2010 SF86 will be available for use by federal contractors using JPAS. A new “Fair Credit Release” form will be required as part of the SF86. |
| 9/2011 | Federal Investigations Notices | OPM posted 4 new Federal Investigations Notices (FIN) on their website, all dated August 29, 2011: FIN 11-04—“Continuous Efforts to Align with Reciprocity Goals and Timeliness Standards.” This FIN fully implements interim adjustments made to National Investigative Standards by a August 2010 joint memorandum issued by OPM and ODNI.FIN 11-05—“Investigations Reimbursable Billing Rates for FY 2012.” With one exception prices for standard OPM investigative products did not increase from FY 2011. OPM stated that “For FY 2012, we intended to apply an across the board ESI cost to all national security NACLC and ANACI investigation prices. We are deferring this pricing change, however, to permit us to use FY 2012 data to assess the rate at which issues are triggered on investigations submitted on the revised SF86.” Prices for NACLC and ANACI should only increase a percentage of the current price of $550 for an ESI, based on the percentage of investigations that require an ESI.FIN 11-06—“Special Agreement Price Schedule.” A few Special Agreement Checks (SAC) were increased by $2 and the others remained unchanged from FY 2011 prices.FIN 11-07—“Discontinuing the 2008 Standard Form (SF) 86; Implementing the Fully Electronic 2010 SF 86.” Both the paper and e-QIP versions of the 2008 SF86 will become obsolete on October 1, 2011 and will no longer be accepted by OPM. Additionally OPM will no longer accept paper copies of SF86s; however, a special process was created to enable Third Party Data Entry (3PDE) where applicants are unable to directly enter into e-QIP themselves. A “Fillable/Printable” PDF version of the 2010 SF86 will be posted to the OPM forms webpage by October 1, 2011. |
| 9/2011 | ODNI Annual Report to Congress | ODNI issued its first annual “Report on Security Clearance Determinations” to Congress. More than 4.2 million people held security clearances for access to classified information in FY2010. Although the report failed to provide data on several metrics required by Section 367 of the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act, it gave a clearer picture of the cleared community and a different way of looking at the length of time it takes to get a security clearance. In FY2010 642,831 security clearances were granted. OPM, which reportedly conducts 90% of all security clearance investigations, “provided data for FY 2010 that it had available on 34,029 security clearance determinations across the Federal Government that took longer than one year. . . .” This suggests that about 5.9% of all cases took over 1 year. Also of interest was the 7% clearance denial rate reported by the National Security Agency. (For comparison FY2010 denial rates at the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals, Department of Navy, and Department of Air Force ranged from 0.6% to 1.3%, and the denial rate at Department of Army was about 6%.) |
| 10/2011 | “No Determination Made” | Numerous defense contractor employees in the greater Tidewater area of Virginia were fired from their jobs, because the Department of Navy Central Adjudication (DONCAF) annotated their national security background investigation files with the notation, “No Determination Made.” The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported the plight of a number of former contractors who were summarily fired without being informed of why they failed to receive a favorable security determination and were denied any right to appeal the Navy’s decision. The same problems have affected Navy contractor employees at Fort Detrick, MD and San Diego, CA. The common denominator appeared to be the Naval Supply Systems Command in San Diego and their improper processing of personnel security investigations. |
| 11/2011 | Periodic Reinvestigations for Public Trust Positions | On November 9, 2011 OPM published its final rule on changes to Title 5 Code of Federal Regulations Part 731 (5 CFR 731), “Suitability.” The new rule, scheduled to go into effect on December 9, 2011, added a requirement to conduct Periodic Reinvestigations (PRs) on all “covered” Public Trust (PT) positions at 5-year intervals. A covered position is defined as “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.” (OPM recommends that “non-covered” positions also be designed as high, moderate, or low risk positions in the same manner as covered positions and that provisions of 5 CFR Part 731 apply to them.) |
| 11/2011 | NISPPAC Report | The November NISPPAC meeting reported an improvement in the end-to-end processing time for industrial security clearances from 4th quarter FY2010 to 3rd quarter FY2011 with significant improvement in the processing of TSPRs. OPM reduced the time requirement for receiving fingerprints from 30 days to 14 days for DOD cases. Other agencies were already required to submit fingerprints within 14 days of submitting a request for investigation. The only except was for overseas applicants. Concerns were express about the possible increase in the case rejection rate at OPM. DISCO case rejection adds 25 to 30 days to a case; whereas, OPM case rejection adds 60 days to a case. Also discussed was the planned issuance of new policy on criteria for conducting Phased Periodic Reinvestigations (PPR) versus Single Scope Background Investigations—Periodic Reinvestigations (SSBI-PRs). |
| 12/2011 | INSA White Paper on Security Reform | The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) issued a white paper titled, “Next Steps for Security Reform.” Most of the recommendations in the white paper were focused on the Intelligence Community and their handling of personnel clearances, their contracting practices, and their SCIF requirements. There were broader recommendations to promote a level playing field where smaller companies can compete on classified contracts and to rationalize employment suitability/fitness criteria and processing for positions that also require a security clearance. Although average clearance processing time has decreased significantly during the past 6 years; the paper stated that, “Conservative estimates suggest that, at any given point in time, 10 to 20 percent of contractors being paid for by the government are not on the job because of delays associated with security clearances and related policies. These lost man-hours represent billions in taxpayer dollars. Even modest improvements in efficiency could save hundreds of millions of dollars each year.” |
| 3/2012 | USD-I Report on Polygraph | In December 2011 the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence published, the DOD Polygraph Program Process and Compliance Study, and reported that for the period 1 May 2010 to 30 April 2011:• All nine DoD polygraph programs are in full compliance with DoD polygraph policy requirements.• All eleven DoD Central Adjudication Facilities (CAFs) are in full compliance with DoD policies and restrictions regarding the use of polygraph results.• No instances of adverse administrative actions or adverse personnel actions being taken against DoD-affiliated personnel whom either refused to take or failed to successfully complete a polygraph examination.• 41,057 examinations for personal security screening (PSS) were conducted, resulting in “No Significant Response” (NSR) in 94% of cases.• A very small percentage of Significant Response (SR)/No Opinion (NO) exams end without admissions made by the subject.Although the report stated that only NSA, DIA and NGA currently require pre-employment polygraph screening; the report also stated that NRO conducted over 8,000 PSS exams, presumably for clearances for contractor personnel and/or for post-employment aperiodic exams. NSA is the only DoD agency currently authorized to conduct Expanded Scope Screening (ESS) polygraph examinations. DIA and NGA conduct Counterintelligence Scope Polygraph (CSP) exams. The report recommend the DIA and NGA consider requesting authority to conduct ESS exams. |
| 2/28/2012 | Federal Investigative Notice (FIN) 12-04 | The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced that it had added a check of their Central Verification System (CVS) database as a standard component of the National Agency Check (NAC). |
| 3/32012 | Security Executive Agent Directive 1 | The Director of National Intelligence as the Security Executive Agent under Executive Order 13467 issued its first directive, which “consolidates and summarizes the authorities and responsibilities assigned to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in the role as the Security Executive Agent (SecEA) responsible for the development, implementation, and oversight of effective, efficient, and uniform policies and procedures governing the conduct of investigations and adjudications for eligibility for access to classified information or eligibility to hold a sensitive position.” |
| 4/2012 | TSA Background Investigation Backlog | A news story reported that the “Transportation Security Administration confirmed Wednesday it had such a backlog of background security checks, airport employers were allowed to hire any employee needed. TSA spokesman John Allen was quoted as saying, “At no time was security at risk, and all new employees will still undergo identity verification and be subject to watchlist matching.” Not a very reassuring statement, since it implies that the checks are not being done prior to employment and access. The problem seems reminiscent of the situation that occurred several years ago when OPM and TSA inadvertently failed to conduct criminal record checks as part of the background investigations on hundreds of TSA employees. |
| 4/2012 | GAO Report on Background Investigations | The General Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on the cost of “Background Investigations” (GAO-12-197) conducted by OPM. The first sentence of the report declared: “OPM’s reported costs to conduct background investigations increased by almost 79 percent, from about $602 million in fiscal year 2005 to almost $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2011 (in fiscal year 2011 dollars).” The criticism appeared to be flawed because it measured the overall increase in the amount spent on background investigations, rather than the actual increase in the price of various investigative products offered by OPM. OPM increased their average weighted price of investigations about 4% per year during the past five years. This was a pretty remarkable feat considering that they significantly reduced turnaround time on their investigations during the same period. |
| 5/2012 | DSS Stakeholders Report 2012 | The Defense Security Service (DSS) released its “Stakeholder Report 2012,” detailing its recent achievements. The report included some statistical data for fiscal year 2011. |
| 5/2012 | Federal Investigative Notice (FIN) 12-05 | OPM announced it “will implement a Social Security Number (SSN) search as a new National Agency Check (NAC) item. The SSN search will be conducted as a standard item on all investigations requested with the Standard Form (SF) 86 and will search records regarding the subject of the investigation only. The SSN search will be implemented on SF85P and SF85 investigations at a later date as the investigative questionnaires are renewed.” |
| 5/2012 | DOD Central Adjudication Facility (CAF) Consolidation | On May 3, 2012, the “Deputy Secretary of Defense directed a complete consolidation of the functions, resources, and assets of the Army Central Clearance Facility, Department of the Navy CAF, Air Force CAF, Joint Staff CAF, Washington Headquarters (WHS) CAF, Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO), and the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals (DOHA) into a single organization under the authority, direction and control of the Director of Administration and Management.” |
| 6/2012 | Revision of OF306 | A new version of the OF306 (Declaration for Federal Employment), dated: October 2011, replaced the previous version. Only two noticeable changes were made to the form. Question 9, which previously asked for criminal offenses that occurred within the past 10 years, was reduced to 7 years. The form now states it can be used for contractor employment fitness determinations (a practice that has been in effect for several years). |
| 6/2012 | NISPPAC Report | The National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee released the report of their March meeting that included statistics on contractor security clearance processing. Average end-to-end elapse time for initial Top Secret and all Secret/Confidential clearances was 63 days in March 2012—a significant and consistent improvement over the previous three quarters. Inventories of both initial clearance investigations and periodic reinvestigations at DISCO have remained the same compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Previous meetings only included information about processing times for contractor clearances handled by DISCO and OPM. This report also contained information about contractor clearance processing times for the Intelligence Community agencies and for the Department of Energy. |
| 6/2012 | Maryland Security Clearance Tax Credit | The new law allows employers to claim a Maryland tax credit of up to $100,000 per year for security clearance administrative expenses, including processing application requests for clearances for employees; maintaining, upgrading, or installing computer systems required to obtain federal security clearances; and training employees to administer the application process. This should include the cost of electronic fingerprint capture systems. Employers can also claim an annual tax credit of 50% of the costs or $100,000 (whichever is less) for the construction or renovation of a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF). |
| 6/2012 | Senate Hearing on Security Clearance Reform | Testimony before the Senate subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia was presented by representatives of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), GAO, DOD, OPM, and DNI. All reported that much progress had been made during the past several years in the areas of clearance processing times, reciprocity, and improving technology. DNI also reported establishing a reciprocity web page hosted on the Security Executive Agent Website that provides education and awareness, a checklist of exceptions, policy references, and examples of non-reciprocity issues. |
| 6/2012 | New CI Polygraph Question | The Director of National Intelligence announced he was mandating that a question related to unauthorized disclosure of classified information be added to the counterintelligence polygraph used by all intelligence agencies that administer the examination (CIA, DIA, DOE, FBI, NGA, NRO, and NSA). |
| 7/2012 | Guidance on Submitting Periodic Reinvestigation | It was announced that “Effective 1 August 2012, DISCO will only accept requests for periodic reinvestigations that are within 90 days of the investigation anniversary date. This is a change from the previous six-month (180 Day) timeframe. The reduced time frame is consistent with improved Industry security clearance investigation/adjudication times. Periodic Reinvestigation requests already initiated at DISCO will continue to be processed as appropriate.” |
| 7/2012 | Eligibility Pending | Also effective August 1, 2012 DISCO began entering a status of “Eligibility Pending” when an interim clearance is “declined.” DISCO states that Eligibility Pending “Indicates the investigation request has been received and reviewed for potentially posting an Interim Determination. When the requirements for an Interim determination have not been met, DISCO will post “Eligibility Pending” and defer adjudication until the completion of the requested investigation. |
| 7/2012 | DOD IG Report: Assessment of Security Within the Department of Defense – Security Policy | The major finding in the DOD Inspector General’s report was that “that security policies often overlap, are fragmentary, or inconsistent. In addition, the sheer volume of security policies that are not coordinated or integrated makes it difficult for those at the field level to ensure consistent and comprehensive policy implementation. While compliance with existing security policies remains a central issue, consumers at the field level are often required to interpret outdated security policy guidance to make it relevant to existing organizational requirements.” The report did not make any recommendations because it was felt that actions were already well underway to significantly consolidate and improve security policy under a Defense Security Enterprise and with the creation of the Defense Security Executive. |
| 8/2012 | Tech America Reciprocity Survey | In a recently released survey Tech America reported on the continuing problems companies experience in clearance reciprocity between federal agencies, as well as clearance processing times. The Department of Homeland Security was cited as the most problematic, followed by the non-DOD Intelligence Community agencies. DOD appeared to be the least problematic. More than half of the survey respondents reported improvement in clearance processing times, but an equal percentage reported processing times greater than 180 days. |
| 8/2012 | DOD CAF Consolidation Begins | Operational consolidation of 7 of the 11 DOD Central Adjudication Facilities (CAFs) began in August. The CAFs physically co-located in a new building on Fort Meade, MD in summer 2011. CAF consolidation affects the Army, Navy, Air Force, Joint Chief of Staff, Washington Headquarters Services, Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office, and a part of the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals. The new agency is designated the DOD Consolidated Adjudication Facility (DODCAF) and composed of various divisions representing the former CAFs. Consolidation is scheduled to be completed by January 2013. It currently handles security clearance and sensitive national security position determinations. By September 2013 it will also become responsible for federal employment suitability/fitness determinations and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 credentialing (as known as Common Access Cards). |
| 9/2012 | Mental Health Counseling | On 4 September 2012 the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) issued a memorandum, Subject: Department of Defense Guidance on Question 21, Standard Form 86, Questionnaire for National Security Positions. In the memo the SECDEF clearly stated that “mental health counseling alone cannot form the basis of a denial of an interim security clearance. . . .” Previously applicants were routinely denied interim clearances, when mental health counseling was disclosed on the SF86. |
| 9/2012 | Federal Investigations Notice 12-07 | OPM announced FY2013 prices charged to other Government agencies for OPM investigative products. For the second consecutive year prices remained unchanged. |
| 9/2012 | ODNI Annual Report to Congress | ODNI issued its second annual “Report on Security Clearance Determinations” to Congress. More than 4.8 million people held security clearances for access to classified information in FY2011. This reflects about a 3% increase over the previous fiscal year, but the increase might be attributable to improved data gathering rather than an actual increase. The most striking statistic was the 4,487 government and contractor clearances pending for over one year at CIA. The data suggests that most of the delays occur during clearance adjudication rather than investigation. NSA had the highest clearance denial rate of 8.0%, followed by CIA with 5.3%, and NRO with 3.8%. |
| 10/2012 | NISPPAC Report | The National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee released the report of their July meeting. DISCO reported a 22% increasing in pending adjudications from Q1 FY2012 to April 2012 and a significant decrease in the case rejection rate since November 2011. |
| 11/2012 | DSS Notice Regarding Secession Petitions | On 16 November 2012 Defense Security Service (DSS) posted at notice on their website under “User/System Alerts” stating that “DSS personnel had received questions from security personnel at cleared contractors about whether contractors should file adverse information reports pursuant to NISPOM paragraph 1-302 regarding cleared persons who sign petitions to allow a state to withdraw or secede from the United States. It also appears that erroneous statements have been made to the effect that DSS is directing contractors to treat the signing of such petitions as reportable adverse information.” At the time DSS indicated they were reviewing the situation, then they removed the posting a couple of months later without explanation. The petitions were posted at the White House’s “We the People” website. |
| 12/2012 | High Impact Report Writing Returns | A number of federal background investigators commented atClearanceJobsBlog.com about on the return of what was previously known as the “High-Impact” style of report writing. DSS used this writing style in their “Report of Investigation” successfully from the early 1990′s to 2004. It was lauded by many security clearance adjudicators as making reports easier and faster to read, because of the use of headings, sub-headings, captions, bullets, and lots of white space. Once DSS transferred its investigative personnel and responsibility to OPM, investigators had to revert to the old way of writing—wall-to-wall text with only occasional breaks between paragraphs. |
| 1/2013 | DOD CAF Consolidation Begins | Operational consolidation of 7 of the 11 DOD Central Adjudication Facilities (CAFs) that began in August 2012 was completed in January. The CAFs had physically co-located in a new building on Fort Meade, MD in summer 2011. This consolidation affected the Army, Navy, Air Force, Joint Chief of Staff, Washington Headquarters Services, and parts of the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO) and the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals (DOHA). The new agency was designated the DOD Consolidated Adjudication Facility (DODCAF). |
| 2/2013 | NISPPAC Report | National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee’s (NISPPAC) posted its November 2012 meeting report on the Information Security Oversight Office’s (ISOO) website. Two noteworthy items from the meeting were: Some intelligence community (IC) members are now using the National Industrial Security Program (NISP) for submitting their Periodic Reinvestigations. Receipt of favorable FBI Criminal History Report will added to the requirements for interim Secret clearance eligibility. This will add about two to three weeks to interim Secret clearance eligibility determinations, which currently take about 3 days for NISP cases. This is essentially the same standard that currently exists for granting interim Top Secret clearances. |
| 2/2013 | Implementation of New Federal Investigative Standards (FIS) | In a February 14, 2013 memorandum the Director of Security at the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USD-I) stated that implementation of the new FIS approved in December 2012 is not expected until FY 2015 or later. Therefore, until further notice, DOD components are not required to begin submitting SECRET-Level periodic reinvestigations requests every five years as required by the new FIS. Details regarding the new FIS have not been made public. |
| 2/2013 | Air Force and Navy Limit Requests for SSBI-PRs | The Air Force indefinitely suspended the submission of requests for Periodic Reinvestigations (PRs) for Top Secret clearances due to an estimated $50 million shortfall in their FY2013 Personnel Security Investigation budget. In a 13 February 2013 memo the Air Force explained that the suspension did not apply to personnel assigned to certain sensitive positions. The Air Force previously suspended Top Secret PRs from April to September 2012 for the same reason. The Navy issued a similar memo on 27 February 2013. |
| 2/2013 | Biennial Report to Congress on Improving Industrial Security | The Defense Security Service (DSS) issued its report to Congress on industrial security funding, manpower, trends, accomplishments, assessments, and other statistical data related to DSS’s responsibilities for FY2011 and FY2012. |
| 3/2013 | Proposed Changes to SF86 | The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) posted a 60 day notice and request for comments for proposed changes to the Questionnaire for National Security Positions (Standard Form 86—SF86). One of the proposed changes would completely rewrite Question 21—Psychological and Emotional Health. The new question would read: In the last seven (7) years, have you had a mental health condition that would cause an objective observer to have concern about your judgment, reliability, or trustworthiness in relation to your work? |
| 3/2013 | PSMO-I | DSS announced its plan to stand up a Personnel Security Management Office for Industry (PSMO-I). Not all elements of the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO) were consolidated into the Industrial Division of DODCAF. PSMO-I will be responsible for front-end processing of personnel security clearances for contractor personnel formerly handled by DISCO, including interim security clearance determinations. |
| 4/2013 | Change to SF86 Mental Health Question | OPM issued Federal Investigations Notice No. 13-02 revising the instructions to the mental health question in its Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing (e-QIP) version of the Standard Form 86 (SF86). Effective April 14, 2013, the SF86 in e-QIP now displays the following additional instructions at Question 21: Victims of sexual assault who have consulted with the health care professional regarding an emotional or mental health condition during this period strictly in relation to the sexual assault are instructed to answer ‘No’. |
| 4/2013 | ODNI Security Clearance Report | The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released its “2012 Report on Security Clearance Determinations.” The report provided statistical data on the number of security clearances, processing times, and denial/revocation rates. |
| 5/2013 | NISPPAC Report | NISPPAC posted the report of its March 2013 meeting on the ISOO website. The report included statistics from OPM, DSS, ODNI, and the Department of Energy (DOE) on industrial security clearance processing. Four significant pending changes to federal personnel security policy were mentioned in the report: Revised Federal Investigative Standards; Revised Adjudicative Guidelines; New National Reporting Requirements; New Polygraph Policy |
| 5/2013 | DSS Temporarily Suspends Top Secret PRs | DSS announced suspension of PRs for Top Secret clearance of contractor personnel from 14 June to 30 September 2013 due to funding shortfalls. This followed similar action by the Air Force and Navy in February. |
| 5/2013 | OPM Federal Investigative Services (FIS) Report | OPM released the FIS Annual Stakeholder Report for Fiscal Year 2012. The report provided an overview of the history, organization, staffing, mission, training, and accomplishments of the FIS Division of OPM, including statistical data on the services it performs for other federal agencies. |
| 6/2013 | NSA PRISM Leak Source Identified | Edward Snowden was identified as the source of the classified information leaked to The Guardian newspaper regarding the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance program known as PRISM. |
| 6/2013 | Senate Committee Hearing on Security Clearance | On June 20, 2013 the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee held a hearing on “Safeguarding Our Nation’s Secrets: Examining the Security Clearance Process.” The hearing was prompted by Edward Snowden’s unauthorized disclosure of classified information on the NSA PRISM program. During the hearing it was disclosed that OPM began an investigation in late 2011 on a “complicated contract fraud case” involving the US Investigative Service’s (USIS) failure to properly review completed investigations before submitting them to OPM. USIS is the largest provider of personnel security investigations to the Government and was the company that conducted the last security clearance investigation on Edward Snowden. It was also disclosed that an audit has never been conducted on the billion dollar revolving FIS fund administered by OPM and used to pay for personnel security investigations. |
| 6/2013 | Federal Investigations Notice No. 13-05 | OPM announced that effective 1 October 2013 it would no longer accept paper copies of Standard Forms 85, 85P, and 85PS, which are used for federal employment suitability, fitness, and credentialing investigations. All requests for investigation on and after that date will have to be submitted to OPM via the Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing (e-QIP). OPM stopped accepting paper copies of Standard Form 86 for National Security Positions in October 2011. |
| 7/2013 | Two Security Clearance Bills Introduced in Congress | The “Security Clearance Oversight and Reform Enhancement” Act (S 1276) was introduced in the Senate, and the “OPM IG” Act (HR 2860) was introduced in the House of Representatives. Both bills will authorize the OPM Inspector General’s office to use of up to 0.33% of the billion dollar OPM FIS revolving fund to perform audits of the fund. |
| 7/2013 | New SF 312 | The “Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement,” Standard Form 312 (SF 312), was revised by ODNI to reflect language required by two new statutes; 2011 Public Law 112-74 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act and 2012 Public Law 112-199 Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA). |
| 8/2013 | Kaplan v. Conyers | The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the Supreme Court’s decision in Department of the Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518 (1988), prohibits Merit System Protection Board (MSPB) review of actions involving security clearance, as well as sensitive national security position determinations. The court reversed the MSPB and held that the Egan limitations apply to MSPB review of agency determinations concerning eligibility of an employee to occupy a “sensitive” position, regardless of whether the position requires access to classified information. |
| 8/2013 | Subpoenas Issued to Former USIS Officials | A federal grand jury issued subpoenas to former officials of US Investigations Services LLC (USIS), the largest provider of personnel security investigations to the U.S. Government. The grand jury was investigating whether USIS improperly submitted investigations to OPM without first performing a required review of the cases, a practice known inside USIS as “flushing” or “dumping.” Allegations about the firm’s practices surfaced in 2011 when a fired USIS manager approached federal investigators. |
| 8/2013 | Federal Investigations Notice No. 13-07 | OPM released their new billing rate for investigative products for FY2014. Prices for three of their major products (MBI, ANACI, and SSBI-PR) increased, but prices for five of their major products (NACI, NACLC, BI, PPR, and SSBI) decreased. |
| 9/2013 | Washington Navy Yard Shooter | Numerous articles appeared in the news of media regarding Aaron Alexis, the Government contractor who murdered 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. Many of these news articles focused on Alexis’ Secret security clearance and the failure of the Government to uncover his past encounters with law enforcement and his mental health problems. Because of the Washington Navy Yard shooting, President Obama directed OMB to review the policy for granting security clearances “for contractors and employees across federal agencies.” The Secretary of Defense also ordered a thorough review of security at U.S. military bases around the world. |
| 9/2013 | DODCAF Employment Suitability/Fitness and CAC Determinations | DODCAF became responsible for the initial review of investigations for DOD employment suitability, employment fitness, and Common Access Card (CAC) determinations. DODCAF now exercises responsibility for favorable adjudications of personnel security investigations that do not involve eligibility for access to classified national security information. If DODCAF is unable to make a favorable determination, a notation of “No Determination Made” is entered into the individual’s record and the case is forwarded to the requesting agency for adjudication. |
| 9/2013 | Unpaid Federal Tax Debt of Cleared Personnel | GAO reported (GAO-13-733) that “About 8,400 individuals adjudicated as eligible for a security clearance from April 2006 to December 2011 owed approximately $85 million in unpaid federal taxes, as of June 2012. This represents about 3.4 percent of the civilian executive branch employees and contractors who were favorably adjudicated during that period. . . . There is no process to detect unpaid federal tax debts accrued after an individual has been favorably adjudicated unless it is self-reported, reported by a security manager due to garnishment of wages, or discovered during a clearance renewal or upgrade.” |
| 10/2013 | U.S. Investigations Services LLC | The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it was intervening in a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit against U.S. Investigations Services LLC (USIS). The lawsuit alleged that USIS had failed to perform quality control reviews in connection with its background investigations pursuant to a contract with OPM. It further alleged that in 2008 USIS began engaging in a practice referred to internally as “dumping.” A USIS computer program would automatically release background investigations to OPM that had not gone through the full review process. This was done in order to meet revenue targets and maximize profits. The initial qui tam lawsuit was brought by a former USIS employee. |
| 10/2013 | Another Senate Committee Hearing | The Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on “The Navy Yard Tragedy: Examining Government Clearances and Background Checks.” Representatives of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the General Accountability Office (GAO), USD-I, OPM and ODNI gave testimony before the committee. The hearing brought out some information on the stalled security clearance reform effort that began in 2007. |
| 10/2013 | NISPPAC Report | NISPPAC posted the report of its July 2013 meeting on the ISOO website. The report included statistics from OPM, DSS, ODNI, and the Department of Energy (DOE) on industrial security clearance processing. The Director of the DoD CAF reported that, “due to the large backlog of industrial cases, the CAF is in the process of blending the work of the adjudicators from the former Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office and the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals (DOHA) into a single division. He noted that the goal is to have a significant reduction in the adjudication backlog over the next two years. . . . [P]revious estimates that the backlog would be eliminated by May of 2014 are now unrealistic, and that based on current budget constraints, the complete elimination of the backlog will take approximately two years.” |
| 10/2013 | Industrial Security Clearance Backlog | PSMO-I resumed submission of security clearance requests to OPM after a 3 week furlough. The backlog of industrial security clearances increased due to the government shutdown during the first 3 weeks in October and a flood of Top Secret PR requests following a 105-day moratorium. |
| 10/2013 | DOD Inspector General Finds Deficiencies in the Navy’s RapidGate Program | The DOD Inspector General (DODIG Report 2013-134) found the US Navy’s RapidGate Program to be deficient and not in compliance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12. |
| 11/2013 | House Committee Chair Issues Subpoena to OPM | The chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued a subpoena to OPM to compel it to turn over internal security clearance policies, training materials and other guidelines. Three letters had been sent to OPM requesting the information, but OPM failed to produce the requested documents. The subpoena also seeks documents pertaining to OPM contracts with USIS, CACI International Inc., and Keypoint Government Solutions, Inc. |
| 11/2013 | House Subcommittee Hearing | A House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence held a hearing on “The Insider Threat to Homeland Security: Examining Our Nation’s Security Clearance Processes.” Representatives of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), OPM, ODNI, and GAO gave testimony before the subcommittee. An ODNI representative provided testimony about current clearance reform initiatives, including improvements to “Continuous Evaluation (CE)” that would allow for a review at any time to ensure that that cleared individuals continue to meet the requirements for eligibility. |
| 11/2013 | And Another Senate Hearing | The Subcommittee on the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Federal Programs and the Federal Workplace held a hearing on “Safeguarding Our Nation’s Secrets: Examining the National Security Workforce.” Representatives of OPM, ODNI, GAO, the American Federation of Government Employees, and the Project on Government Oversight gave testimony before the subcommittee. The hearing focused on standardizing criteria for national security position sensitivity designations. |
| 12/2013 | Deadline for SWFT Implementation | December 31, 2013 marked the deadline for implementing electronic fingerprint submissions using the Secure Web Fingerprint Transmission (SWFT) system for all DOD security clearance requests. |