Lawmakers lash out at security clearance backlog

Lawmakers launched a blistering attack Thursday on personnel officials responsible for the backlog of Defense Department security clearances for industry personnel.

The Defense Department currently has 188,000 contractors waiting for personnel investigators to make a decision on their security clearances, according to a General Accounting Office report (GAO-04-202T). Since 2001, the average time it has taken the Pentagon to determine clearance eligibility for industry workers increased from 56 days to more than one year. During a House Government Reform Committee hearing Thursday, lawmakers said the slow pace was obstructing U.S. military and homeland security efforts.

"It is a strange irony that the security clearance process … would actually be hindering our efforts to protect the security of our country," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., said clearance delays are costing taxpayers billions of dollars because federal employees and contractors cannot perform their duties.

"We're getting less security and it's costing us more," he said.

Officials from the Defense Department and the Office of Personnel Management said that the problem had been created by stark shortfalls in personnel.

"The demand for background checks exceeds our capacity," said Stephen Benowitz, OPM associate director for human resources products and services. "We believe the process is one that needs improvement."

OPM recently delayed plans to take over the Defense Security Service, which conducts background checks of Pentagon applicants. That merger was supposed to streamline the clearance process.

It is the Pentagon's policy to hire contractors to relieve the security clearance backlog, according to Heather Anderson, the acting director of security for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. She said Defense officials were concerned about hiring federal investigators and then having too many staffers on hand when the backlog was reduced.

Anderson said three Defense contractors have been "immeasurably useful" in resolving security clearances. She did not explain, however, why the backlog still existed if the contractor work has been successful.

Lawmakers demanded action from the personnel officials. Davis produced a GAO report from 1981 that identified the security clearance backlog as a serious problem at the time.

"Why is the federal government in the same boat with the same issues 23 years later?" Davis asked.

Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, questioned why the Pentagon did not seek funds to hire more investigators.

"What's most frustrating [is] you've never asked for any more people," he said. "We'll give you anything you need to get this done."

Gregory Wilshusen, GAO's acting director for defense capabilities and management, said the Pentagon does not know the extent of its agencywide security clearance backlog. Determining the size of the problem-beyond contractor clearances-would be an important first step, Wilshusen said.

Personnel officials indicated that relief in the backlog would probably not come before the end of fiscal 2004. Lawmakers seemed desperate for more immediate action, saying their district offices have been deluged with complaints from frustrated federal employees and contractors seeking security clearances or renewals.

"Chairman Davis is holding this hearing because it has gone way beyond any reasonable expectation of patience," Moran said.