Senate Bill Proposes New Reporting, Oversight Requirements

Two U.S. Senators reportedly have introduced a bill, the Security Clearance Modernization and Reporting Act of 2009. The Senators are chairman and ranking member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee on Government Management.

The bill would require the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to submit periodic reports to Congress about efficencies in security clearance processing beyond when current reporting requirements expire.

It also would establish a security clearance oversight council and mandate that it report to Congress, within 90 days, on residual security clearance problems and efforts to resolve them.

Time to completion of initial security clearance investigations was said to have decreased at a Congressional hearing in September. It now takes some 79 days and 40 days, respectively, to process a new Top Secret or Secret clearance.

Additional reporting on the new bill was found here. You can read the Senators’ remarks introducing their bill here.

Filed Under: Reform, Laws & Regulations, Adjudication