These determinations are made using the guidelines published by the government for employment suitability and access to classified information. The information gathered by the government is not shared with the applicant's employer and the applicant has an opportunity to explain or mitigate potentially disqualifying information to the NASA adjudicator. We benchmarked our approach with OPM, DoD, Treasury, State, and Justice. All these agencies use or recommend the 85P as the baseline questionnaire. DoD and State use the 85P-S which asks additional questions about drug use, alcohol use, criminal history , and financial status.
State runs credit checks.
Screening paragraph indicates screening is for criminal history. NASA also needs to know about a person's use of illegal drugs, alcohol abuse, criminal behaviors, and anything else that would allow us to make a determination that a person is or isn't likely to safeguard our systems. These forms, in concert with the national agency checks, are the least intrusive method available to the government. In addition, a credit check and release form for medical information are not required. Only those individuals who require privileged or limited privileged access to sensitive NASA information contained in unclassified IT systems.