House Chairman Urges Action on Security Clearances House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis is urging the Bush administration to act quickly to implement legislation designed to speed the processing of security clearances. A Davis-sponsored provision of the 2004 Intelligence Reform Act requires the administration to name a single agency to direct day-to-day oversight of clearances governmentwide. The law says the agency must be chosen by the end of March. The law directs the lead agency to implement “uniform and consistent policies and procedures” and requires all agencies to accept clearances granted by the lead agency. “First of all, it puts somebody in charge,” Davis (R-VA) told Set-Aside Alert. “Right now you’ve got different agencies passing the buck to other agencies.” He said the backlog of clearance applications has grown to more than 500,000, counting both government employees and contractors. “This ought to reduce it, but we have to get the administration to buy in,” he said. If the law is implemented on schedule, Davis declared, the backlog could be reduced significantly within a few months. “We’re paying more for work that needs security clearances than we ought to be, the taxpayers are,” he said. Contractors have reported they are paying signing bonuses and premium salaries to cleared workers. Some companies have been advertising on Washington radio stations to recruit those workers as the war and homeland security initiatives have ratcheted up demand for cleared personnel. The Government Accountability Office this year added the Defense Department’s security clearance program to its “high-risk” list of programs that are especially vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement. This month the Office of Personnel Management is scheduled to absorb the Defense Security Service and become a one-stop for most background investigations. OPM already handled investigations for most civilian agencies. OPM awarded blanket purchase agreements last year to five new contractors and said that would increase the number of investigators to 8,000 from the current 6,000 over the next three years. (SAA, 12/3/2004) The Intelligence Reform Act calls for creation by December of a governmentwide database of cleared employees and contractors to eliminate redundant investigations. The law requires 80% of clearance applications to be handled within 120 days starting in December 2006. Davis said the lead agency should explore new technology to speed the process. “The State Department has cleared up a lot just by going to computers and automation,” he said. State has reduced its processing time from seven months to less than four months by creating electronic forms and automating much of the paperwork, Federal Times reported.