The vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday said he thinks the chamber will pass legislation reforming the federal security clearance process.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said at an Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) event that there is no controversy about a reform package he has advocated, noting it is bipartisan and was apporoved unanimously by the committee.

Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.). Photo: U.S. Senate.
Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.). Photo: U.S. Senate.

“Even with Congress’ stellar record of getting things done, I’ll put this in a much more likely than not category to get done.”

Warner introduced provisions to modernize and reform the security clearance process into the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2018 and 2019.

The provisions include promoting information sharing among government agencies and industry to prevent persons with security risks from being moved around, requiring reciprocity for recognizing clearances across agencies, moving to a continuous evaluation model for 90 percent of clearance holders rather than the current periodic re-investigations, requiring consistent treatment of government and  contractor personnel in the system, and quickening background investigations by using new technology to verify information.

Warner said after Congress returns following the midterm elections “we will get the intel bill across the line.”

However, if the intelligence authorization does not pass, he said there is enough support in the Senate behind the reform portion to spin it off as a separate bill.

Warner noted four kinds of outcomes that would signal progress on the issue to him.

Reducing the backlog is a priority because while it is down from over 700,000 open investigations in early 2018 to 600,000, that is “not nearly good enough.” He favors measuring active metrics in clearances at least on a quarterly basis when shared agreed upon goals are ready.

Warner said he also wants to see 90 percent of Secret clearance requests finished within 30 days and Top Secret requests finished within 90 days. He noted the importance that “the notion that we all use in terminology for continuous evaluation doesn’t just become a phrase but becomes a reality.”

He argued reciprocity is important because the government has to recognize very few people will work for the same agency or company for 35 years anymore.

Warner said just like in other parts of the economy, people are expected to move around to different positions and contracts so there should be real clearance reciprocity as well. He compared reform without reciprocity to Sisyphus rolling a rock up a hill, only to later have it reverse progress.

Warner said he is confident the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats appreciates the importance of reform because he appointed Susan Gordon, principal deputy Director of National Intelligence, to help direct efforts on the intelligence community side.

Also speaking at the event, Gordon said the intelligence community is working to finish a security framework by the end of this year that will help set government-wide standards for agencies to follow when conducting background investigations.

“And then we can build that out as a community” as the first step in reform, Gordon said. These standards will be understandable and common enough to be applied to any agency.

She acknowledged setting investigative and adjudicative standards for clearance work is not exciting, but it is important in reducing the time on clearance work, helping agencies to decide a prospective employee’s risk based on security and suitability.

If this is not defined in a “standard lexicon,” then the agencies cannot build metrics to show a reduction in clearance delays, Gordon said.

She said this will have to be followed up with a second “big deal” working with all the agencies and organizations that have to implement the framework.

Warner added that while the Intelligence Community and Defense Department has been “pretty good” on starting this reform process, the Office of Management a Budget “was a little slow to the table” and thinks the Department of Homeland Security is still “slow to the table.”