Clearance! Get Your Clearance Here!

An Executive Order (EO) proposed in June will transfer the governmentwide security clearance program from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) to the Pentagon.

DoD is preparing to restructure and reorganize personnel and resources to take over the security clearance program. Their effort has been ongoing since Congress authorized the department to take responsibility for defense-only background investigations in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.

DoD plans to merge the NBIB workforce with the Defense Security Service, along with several defense entities, to form a new security clearance organization. Although only Congress can create a new agency, DoD has the latitude to restructure existing functions.

The new agency, likely to be called the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) will have upwards of 10,000 employees. The employees will include both federal and contracted investigators. Employees will come from NBIB and the Defense Security Service’s current workforce of approximately 900 employees. DCSA will have two additional “clearing arms”: a Critical Technology Protection Center and a Counterintelligence and Analysis Center. Ultimately DCSA will serve as the governmentwide security clearance provider.

The goal is to decrease waits for clearances, which is currently absurdly long. People graduating from college and offered a government job, pending a clearance, often are lost to other companies due to long waits for their clearances. The government wants a less expensive workforce and newer technologies,  but cannot get it until they have the cleared personnel.

If you have clearance questions, give us a call at 301-913-5000.