OMB plan to improve clearance IT gets mixed reaction

A new OMB report offering technology-driven recommendations to expedite hiring and security clearances for government employees and contractors has drawn a positive response from a top IT expert, but less favorable words from lawmakers.

The paper outlines numerous projects that could cut processing time and streamline thousands of security clearances.

Written by officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Defense Department and OMB, it was sent to President Bush last week as a response to recent White House pressure and congressional interest.

Among its proposals, the report calls for immediate development of a new system to collect more relevant applicant information at the beginning of the screening process and automatically adjudicate "clean" secret case files, which would free up analysts to focus on more complex cases.

It also recommended replacing periodic reinvestigations of clearances with more expedient technologies used in the private sector.

Brendan Peter, senior director for industry affairs at LexisNexis, Monday called the plan "an incredibly positive step" likely to produce "quick wins." He said an overhaul remains critical, given that intelligence agencies are still far short of their goal to have 80 percent of top-secret clearances processed in 90 days. Peter noted that he joined LexisNexis in December 2005, but his top-secret clearance was not finished until April 2007.

The new report is "an important first indicator" of how the Bush administration plans to proceed in its remaining months, Peter said. GAO recently found that it takes an average of 446 days to process initial clearances and 545 days for reinvestigations. The 2004 Intelligence Reform Act set a 120-day goal.

In a statement Monday, however, House Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Tom Davis, R-Va., said he doubted the current system would ever meet the Intelligence Reform Act's goals, and he called for the programs listed in the new OMB report to be accelerated and expanded.

"We can't afford to allow the paper-bound status quo to stumble along nibbling at festering backlogs any longer," said Davis. He had also highlighted the problem in a letter last May to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, warning of a possible "devastating disruption" in the Pentagon's ability to process contractor clearances. Budgetary shortfalls have put the office that conducts personnel checks "on the brink of insolvency," while a spike in applications "would both surprise and paralyze" the division, he wrote at the time.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, issued a sharper response Monday and said the Homeland Security subcommittee he chairs will hold a hearing later this month on the reforms. He called the report "thin on solid plans and details" and charged that the administration "tolerated years of poor results before finally taking these first steps to real reform of the clearance process."