Security Clearance Reform Act of 2015

To provide for a strategic plan to reform and improve the security clearance and background investigation processes of the Federal Government, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Security Clearance Reform Act of 2015 2. Security clearance process reform plan (a) Plan Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the President shall submit a strategic plan to the appropriate congressional committees to improve security clearance and background investigation activities carried out by the Federal Government. (b) Contents of plan The plan submitted under subsection (a) shall— (1) develop and establish a continuous evaluation or monitoring system that shall— (A) on a continual basis, access Federal, State, and local government and commercially available information, including financial credit history, currency transactions, court records, traffic violations, arrest records, terrorist and criminal watch lists, foreign travel, and online social media; (B) provide real-time updates or notifications with respect to information relevant to adjudication guidelines concerning whether a cleared individual is eligible for such individual’s security clearance; and (C) reduce or eliminate the schedule of any periodic reinvestigation of a cleared individual; (2) ensure that— (A) the background of each cleared individual is monitored on a continual basis; and (B) any covered individual who is not a cleared individual is not subject to continuous evaluation or monitoring; (3) ensure the effective, efficient, and timely completion of background investigations relating to a covered individual’s eligibility for a security clearance; (4) improve procedures to require information sharing between agencies concerning— (A) potentially derogatory security information regarding a covered individual that may impact the eligibility of any such individual for a security clearance; and (B) adjudications with respect to any covered individual; (5) enhance cooperation and information sharing between any State or local law enforcement agency and any agency; (6) enhance methods for reducing or eliminating manual processes with respect to security clearance background investigations, and automating and integrating the elements of such investigations and adjudication processes, including— (A) the security clearance application process; (B) field investigator reporting; (C) investigation case management; (D) the collection, analysis, storage, retrieval, and transfer of data and records; (E) the submission of any background investigation report to an agency for adjudication; and (F) records management for security clearance adjudication determinations; (7) reduce or eliminate the use of databases and information sources that cannot be accessed and processed electronically, or modify such databases and information sources to enable electronic access and processing; (8) increase the use of digitally processed fingerprints as a substitute for ink or paper prints to reduce error rates and improve portability of data; (9) develop Federal Governmentwide performance measures, based on the Federal Investigative Standards (as promulgated by the Director and the Director of National Intelligence), to measure the quality of background investigations conducted by the Federal Government; (10) require that, with respect to any background investigation activities, a Federal employee conducts— (A) any final quality or integrity assurance review conducted by an agency of a background investigation; (B) any interview of a covered individual with respect to a background investigation; and (C) any background investigation of a covered individual to determine the person’s eligibility for a security clearance at the Top Secret level or higher; (11) develop procedures that ensure that any information collected pursuant to the plan with respect to a covered individual, including information collected from online social media, shall be verified for authenticity; and (12) provide a detailed description of the estimated costs of implementing the plan. (c) Delegation The President may select at least one agency to develop or implement the plan required under this section. In the preceding sentence, the term agency (1) any agency as that term is defined in section 6(1), but does not include any military department (as that term is defined in section 102 of title 5, United States Code); or (2) the Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council (as established by Executive Order No. 13467). (d) Levels of scrutiny The plan required under this section may require different levels of continuous evaluation scrutiny with respect to Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret or higher security clearances. (e) Use of pre-Existing systems or databases In carrying out the requirements of this section, the President may incorporate or enhance any systems or databases operated by the Federal Government, including the database established under section 3001(e) of Public Law 108–458 (f) Implementation The President shall fully implement the plan required under this section not later than 1 year after the date of submission of such plan to the appropriate congressional committees. 3. Organizational conflict of interest Beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act for contracts entered into after such date, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management may not award a contract for— (1) investigative support services to an entity if that entity also has, at the time of award of the contract or at any time during the performance of the contract, another contract in effect with the Federal Government (or with another contractor of the Government at any tier) to provide background investigation fieldwork services; or (2) background investigation fieldwork services to an entity if that entity also has, at the time of award of the contract or at any time during the performance of the contract, another contract in effect with the Federal Government (or with another contractor of the Government at any tier) to provide investigative support services. 4. State and local cooperation (a) Report Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act and each year thereafter, the Director shall submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees listing any State or local entity covered by the definition of criminal justice agency (b) Withholding of Byrne-JAG funds (1) In general For any fiscal year after fiscal year 2015, a jurisdiction that fails, as determined by the Director to substantially comply with criminal history record information requests shall not receive the percentage specified in paragraph (2) of the funds that would otherwise be allocated for the subsequent fiscal year to the jurisdiction under subpart 1 of part E of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 ( 42 U.S.C. 3750 et seq. (2) Applicable percentages The applicable percentages are as follows: (A) First year of noncompliance Except as provided in subparagraph (B), for each fiscal year that a jurisdiction fails to substantially comply with criminal history record information requests, the percentage specified is 10 percent. (B) subsequent year of noncompliance For each succeeding consecutive fiscal year after a fiscal year referred to in subparagraph (A) that a jurisdiction fails to substantially comply with criminal history record information requests, the percentage specified is 10 percent multiplied by the number of such consecutive fiscal years that the jurisdiction has failed to substantially comply with criminal history record information requests (not to exceed 100 percent). (3) Reallocation Amounts not allocated under a program referred to in this section to a jurisdiction for failure to substantially comply with criminal history record information requests, shall be reallocated under that program to jurisdictions that have not failed to substantially comply with criminal history record information requests, or may be reallocated to a jurisdiction from which they were withheld to be used solely for the purpose of complying with section 9101(b)(1) of title 5, United States Code. (4) Noncompliance For purposes of this subsection, the term fails to substantially comply with criminal history record information requests (5) Rule of attribution In the case of a jurisdiction that fails to substantially comply with criminal history record information requests, if that jurisdiction is subject to the requirements of section 505(d)(4) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 ( 42 U.S.C. 3755(d)(4) (c) Requests from contractors acting on behalf of covered agencies; clarification of police records Section 9101 of title 5, United States Code, is amended— (1) by adding at the end the following new subsection: (g) Criminal justice agencies shall accept and comply with requests for criminal history record information pursuant to this section regardless of whether a request is submitted directly by a covered agency or by a contractor of a covered agency acting on the agency’s behalf. ; and (2) in subsection (a)(2)— (A) after criminal charges (including descriptions of the incidents or events leading to or on which the arrests, indictments, informations, or other formal charges are based) (B) by adding at the end the following: The term also includes information pertaining to arrests that do not result in the arrestee being charged with or convicted of a criminal offense. 5. Reports (a) Quality review Not later than 90 days after the date of submission of the plan under section 2 and each year thereafter, the Director shall submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees that— (1) evaluates the quality of background investigations conducted by OPM during the previous year based on the performance measures developed pursuant to the plan submitted under section 2; and (2) includes information on the percentage of background investigations conducted by OPM that meet Federal Investigative Standards (as promulgated by the Director and the Director of National Intelligence). (b) Reports under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 Section 3001(h)(1) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 ( 50 U.S.C. 3341(h)(1) through 2011 6. Definitions In this Act: (1) Agency Except as provided otherwise in this Act, the term agency Public Law 108–458 (2) Appropriate congressional committees The term appropriate congressional committees (A) the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives; (B) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; (C) the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives; and (D) the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate. (3) Background investigation The term background investigation (4) Background investigation fieldwork services The term background investigation fieldwork services (5) Cleared individual The term cleared individual (6) Covered individual The term covered individual (A) is being considered by an agency for a security clearance; or (B) is a cleared individual. (7) Director The term Director (8) Federal employee The term Federal employee employee (A) any member of the uniformed services; and (B) any officer or employee of the United States Postal Service or the Postal Regulatory Commission. (9) Investigative support services The term investigative support services (10) Jurisdiction The term jurisdiction (11) OPM The term OPM

Summary: Security Clearance Reform Act of 2015 Directs the President to submit a strategic plan to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the intelligence committees of Congress (appropriate congressional committees) to improve security clearance and background investigation activities. Sets forth the required contents of such plan, including the development of a continuous evaluation or monitoring system of information used for security clearances, improvement of information sharing procedures between agencies, and the reduction or elimination of databases and information sources that cannot be accessed and processed electronically. Prohibits the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from awarding a contract to any entity for investigative support services or background investigation fieldwork services if such entity has another contract in effect with the federal government to provide such services. Requires the OPM Director to report to the appropriate congressional committees listing any state or local entity covered by the definition of "criminal justice agency" that has failed to cooperate with three or more criminal history record information requests of the Director. Reduces criminal justice grant funding to state and local entities that fail to substantially comply with such requests.