DOD: "Security Clearances Do Not 'Expire'" The Defense Department has ordered its personnel to continue recognizing contractors’ security clearances even if they are overdue for renewal. “Budget issues within the Department suspended industry clearances processing for several weeks,” Robert Andrews, deputy undersecretary for counterintelligence and security, wrote in a memo. “Due to the suspension, many of the Periodic Reinvestigations [required to update a clearance] were not submitted on time.” “Personnel security clearances do not ‘expire,’” he added. Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT) raised the issue with the Pentagon. He said some employees of contractor Electric Boat in his district had been denied access when they tried to enter other defense facilities, and security officials told them their clearances had “expired.” Anderson said his memo was intended to provide guidance and correct the “misinterpretation” of the rules. The Defense Security Service stopped accepting clearance applications from industry for more than two weeks last spring because it had run out of money to process them. It did not completely lift the moratorium until July 10. (SAA, 7/14) Simmons sponsored an amendment to the 2007 defense authorization bill that prohibits DOD from canceling any clearance that was overdue for renewal because of the backlog of recertification requests. After releasing the text of DOD’s guidance, he said, “I’m pleased that the Pentagon has clarified its policy and that our defense workers can get to work where and when national security requirement – and not bureaucracy – call.”