Senators on the Intelligence Committee expressed deep frustration during a March 7 hearing focused on the government’s lack of progress in reducing its 710,000-strong backlog of pending security clearance requests.
Charles Phalen, director of the National Background Investigations Bureau, told lawmakers it would likely be years before they saw a significant reduction in the backlog.
Several members of the committee, such as vice chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.), indicated they would consider a complete overhaul of the status quo if significant progress is not observed in the near and intermediate term. Warner wants to “completely rethink” the security clearance process, saying it was not designed to respond to the role of contractors or leaks by insiders to foreign adversaries or the press.
