Congressmen Seek Action on Security Clearances Two congressmen said they will support legislation designed to speed the processing of security clearances for contractors, as an industry survey found many IT companies are paying premiums of 25% or more to hire employees who already have clearances. The General Accounting Office reported the Defense Department took an average of 375 days to act on contractor’s requests for security clearances in fiscal 2003, 56 days more than it took in 2001. GAO said the department had a backlog of 188,000 requests for clearances for industry personnel as of March 31. “We’ve got a war going on – two wars – and we can’t get the people we need out into the field,” complained Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA). Moran, a member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said he will seek to provide more money for processing clearances in the 2005 DOD budget, even though the department has not asked for the money. The chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), said he will propose legislation requiring all agencies to recognize security clearances granted by another agency, a practice known as reciprocity. Davis convened a hearing on the issue May 6. Davis and Moran, who represent the Virginia suburbs of Washington, and Rep. Ed Schrock, a Republican from the military-heavy Hampton Roads area of Virginia, each said they have received hundreds of requests from constituents wanting help to expedite clearances. “It is a serious, serious problem that every day makes our country less safe and costs taxpayers billions of dollars,” Davis said. He wrote to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, urging him “to make solving the security backlog a top priority for your Department.” Industry representatives told the committee that fevered competition to hire and keep cleared personnel is driving up their costs, and therefore the government’s costs. A survey by the Information Technology Association of America found that more than half the companies that responded were paying cleared employees at least 25% more than the usual salaries for their jobs. “Industry is poaching employees where they can, sometimes paying referral bonuses of up to $10,000 for a cleared person,” said Doug Wagoner, vice president of Data Systems Analysts, a small IT services company based in Fairfax, Va. Congress last year authorized the Defense Department to hand its clearance investigations over to the Office of Personnel Management, which manages those chores for civilian agencies. But OPM’s associate director for human resources, Stephen Bernowitz, testified that the agency has not decided whether to accept the handover. Bernowitz said DOD’s information systems are not compatible with OPM’s and DOD’s people need additional training. Bernowitz said OPM has released an RFP seeking additional contractors and plans to make several awards. He said the RFP specified that new contractors must hire and train new investigators, rather than stealing experienced ones from other contractors or from the government. Gregory Wilshusen, who leads the General Accounting Office investigation, told the committee that DOD does not have enough people to handle clearance investigations. He said the department has “no comprehensive plan” for eliminating the backlog of cases. Heather Anderson, DOD director of strategic information, said the department is studying several strategies to speed up the process. But she estimated it would take two years to catch up with the backlog. “It looks like it’s time to mandate that it be fixed and…provide whatever resources are necessary,” Rep. Moran commented. President Clinton signed an executive order in 1995 directing agencies to honor each other’s security clearances, but government and industry officials said that is still not happening. Wagoner said there are more than 20 federal agencies with different requirements for granting clearances.