Federal Daily - May 28, 2008

GAO:  Lowering Some Security Requirements Could Unburden Clearance Process

The workload on the government’s overburdened security clearance process could be eased significantly if agencies were more selective in deciding what positions needed high security ratings, said a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released May 22. GAO looked at key factors that should be considered in personnel security clearance reform efforts now underway. The process has been plagued by incomplete investigative reports from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the granting of some clearances by DoD adjudicators even though required data were missing, and long-standing delays in completing clearances. OPM supplies about 90 percent of all federal clearance investigations, including those for DoD, which maintains about approximately 2.5 million clearances. While having a large number of cleared personnel can give the military services and agencies a great deal of flexibility when assigning personnel, the report said, having unnecessary requirements for security clearances increases the investigative and adjudicative workloads. For example, the cost of obtaining and maintaining a Top Secret clearance—the highest such clearance rating—for 10 years is approximately 30 times greater than the cost of obtaining and maintaining a Secret clearance (the second highest) for the same period. Also, changing a position’s clearance level from Secret to Top Secret increases the investigative workload for that position about 20-fold, the report said. To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/new.items/d08776t.pdf.

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Internet Access Restored to DOI Offices

Internet access is being restored to five offices at the Department of the Interior (DOI) that dealt with individual Indian trust data, following a court ruling that vacated a 2001 temporary restraining order. The five DOI offices—the Office of the Solicitor, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians, the Office of Hearing and Appeals and the Office of Historical Trust Accounting—were unhooked from the Internet following a ruling in a class-action lawsuit. The court held in 2001 that all DOI offices with information technology systems that housed or provided access to individual Indian trust data should be unhooked as a data security measure. However, DOI showed that it had now put in place new security systems—and U.S. District Judge James Robertson vacated the court order and allowed the agency offices to reconnect, DOI said in a May 23 statement. “Reconnection will allow our employees to work more efficiently and effectively to meet the needs of tribes and their members,” said DOI Assistant Secretary Carl J. Artman. To see more, go to: www.doi.gov/news/08_News_Releases/080523.html.

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Bill Would Compensate Soldiers Forced Into Extended Service

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., has introduced a bill to provide a monthly $1,500 bonus to troops affected by the DoD’s “stop loss” policy that involuntarily extends military service beyond an enlistment contract. The bill would require the Pentagon to pay $1,500 to each servicemember for each month he or she is kept beyond the end of their enlistment period. The bill, if it becomes law, would be retroactive to October 2001 to compensate any servicemember who has been stop-lossed since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lautenberg said. On average, soldiers affected by stop loss now serve an extra 6.6 months. Between May 2007 and March 2008, the number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army increased to 12,235.  And 3,879 National Guard soldiers are affected by stop loss, Lautenberg said, noting that the bill would also apply to members of the Reserve forces. “After months and years of risking their lives, our troops are too often being told they cannot return home to their families when they were scheduled,” Lautenberg said on May 23. To see more, go to: http://lautenberg.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=298364.

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