WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, today urged the Trump Administration to prioritize reforms to the security clearance process. In a letter to the White House, Sen. Warner urged Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster to “personally apply the utmost priority to personnel security clearance reform. In the letter, which follows an Intelligence Committee hearing last week on the same topic, Sen. Warner called the current system “inadequate” and said reforms were necessary to recruit and retain a trusted national security workforce.

“The background investigation inventory has more than doubled in the last three years, with over 700,000 people currently waiting on a background check. Costs to run a check have nearly doubled, and timelines to process clearances far exceed the standards set in law. Furthermore, prompt recognition of security clearances granted at one agency at another is uneven. These inefficiencies cost the taxpayer millions of dollars, sap morale and productivity, and harm our nation’s security,” wrote Sen. Warner.

Last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee held an open hearing on security clearance reform featuring representatives from industry and a number of the government agencies with jurisdiction over the clearance process. During questioning, Vice Chairman Warner pressed government officials to make needed improvements, and heard from industry representatives about ways the clearance process could be reformed via legislation.

Back in January, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) placed the security clearance process on its “high risk” list – the areas of government that need broad-based transformation or reforms. At a February hearing in the Senate Intelligence Committee, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats called the security clearance process system “broken” and acknowledged that it must be reformed.

“We need a ‘whole of government’ approach to tackling this challenge – by harnessing the power of modern technology, instituting processes like ‘continuous evaluation,’ ensuring adequate funding, and ensuring uniform standards. These things require the Administration’s top officials to treat security clearance as an urgent priority,” noted the Senator in today’s letter to General Kelly and General McMaster.

Last month, Sen. Warner penned an op-ed in the Cipher Brief highlighting the need for reforming the security clearance process.

The full text of the letter follows. A PDF can be found here. 

Gen. John F. Kelly, USMC (Ret.)                                              LTG H.R. McMaster, USA

Chief of Staff                                                                           National Security Advisor

The White House                                                                     The White House

Washington, DC  20503                                                          Washington, DC  20503

Dear General Kelly and General McMaster:

We write to request that you personally apply the utmost priority to personnel security clearance reform to ensure we can recruit and retain a trusted workforce for our nation’s national security and public safety missions. 

The system we have now is inadequate to meet today’s challenges.  On January 25, 2018, the Comptroller General announced that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) placed the security clearance process on its “High Risk List.”  On February 13, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that the security clearance system process is “broken” and in need of a “revolution.”  And on February 16 General Kelly himself issued a memo recognizing the need to “take action to streamline, harmonize, and modernize standards across the Executive Branch.”

On Wednesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee heard from the GAO, industry representatives, and the senior government officials charged with overseeing and implementing the clearance process.  The hearing highlighted serious shortcomings in how the government determines who may have access to the nation’s secrets and classified facilities and networks. 

The background investigation inventory has more than doubled in the last three years, with over 700,000 people currently waiting on a background check. Costs to run a check have nearly doubled, and timelines to process clearances far exceed the standards set in law. Furthermore, prompt recognition of security clearances granted at one agency at another is uneven. These inefficiencies cost the taxpayer millions of dollars, sap morale and productivity, and harm our nation’s security.

We need a “whole of government” approach to tackling this challenge – by harnessing the power of modern technology, instituting processes like “continuous evaluation,” ensuring adequate funding, and ensuring uniform standards. These things require the Administration’s top officials to treat security clearance as an urgent priority. 

We look forward to working with you address the challenge of reforming and fixing our nation’s security clearance process. 

Sincerely,

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