Security clearance backlog continues to drop

By Adam Mazmanian

After a closed-door hearing on Jan. 22, the leaders of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence praised efforts by government to get its backlog of active security clearance adjudications under control, but want to see the system support more diversity among intelligence community recruits. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the committee chairman, said he was pleased to see that the clearance investigation backlog has dropped from 725,000 cases in early 2018 to 231,000.

That represents an improvement even over the figure of 249,000 active cases reported by the White House in December.

The President's Management Agenda sets a caseload of 200,000 active investigations as its "steady-state inventory target." National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina said in his opening statement, obtained by FCW, that the speed of investigations has improved, with secret investigations speeding up by 55% and a 60% improvement in the on-time rate for top secret investigations.

Read more at FCW.