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Security clearance process to be automated

Bush administration officials want to have a plan in place to automate most aspects of the security clearance process by the time a new administration arrives.

The plan, announced Thursday, calls for a system that will accept online clearance applications, perform automated records checks, approve or deny some clearances using automated tools, and use automation to find red flags in applicants’ background files and better target where field investigators focus their attention, Clay Johnson, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, said Thursday.

But details on how and when this new system will be in place — and how much it will cost — is still unknown. Johnson said he and other officials at the White House, the Office of Personnel Management, Defense Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will release a series of reports this year with more information.

Johnson said a big part of the plan is that computers will be regularly checking government and commercial databases to review relevant criminal, financial and other records of people who hold security clearances. Data on people holding top secret clearances will be reviewed every year and people holding secret clearances will be reviewed every five years. Top-secret reinvestigations are now conducted every five years and secret reinvestigations are conducted about every 10 years.

Johnson said he hopes the new system will enable field investigators to spend their time investigating only those leads that have not been resolved through automation. Investigators now investigate all aspects of an applicant’s background, which Johnson said is inefficient.

“We’ve been making determinations the same way for 50 years, and it’s time to change the way we do it,” Johnson said.

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