**GAO-08-580R**                      Published: Mar 25, 2008. Publicly Released: Mar 25, 2008.                  

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## Highlights

On February 13, 2008, Mr. Jack Edwards--an Acting Director in our Defense Capabilities and Management team--testified before the subcommittee at a hearing on the Department of Defense (DOD) security clearance processes. This report responds to a Congressional request for additional information on that subject. Specifically, GAO was asked the following: (1) In the report that GAO issued today to this committee and your testimony statement, you discussed a need for more emphasis on quality in clearance products and processes. What have agencies been using as quality measures, and are they sufficient? (2) Do you believe that DOD, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have made the necessary commitment to improve the security clearance process? What steps need to be taken to ensure that on-going initiatives continue past this Administration? (3) The Intel Reform Act requires that timeliness statistics be reported to Congress. Do the timeliness statistics provide a full picture of how quickly clearances are being issued? If there are additional statistics that would add to the Congress's oversight of clearance timeliness, what types of factors should be considered in identifying additional metrics?

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## Topics

National Defense

Background investigationsCongressional oversightData integrityInvestigations by federal agenciesPersonnel managementPersonnel security clearance programsPersonnel security policiesProgram evaluationProgram managementQuality assuranceQuality controlRecords managementReporting requirementsSecurity clearance backlogsSecurity clearancesSecurity investigationsPolicies and procedures