Personnel security clearances are required for access to certain national security information, which may be classified at one of three levels: confidential, secret, or top secret. A top secret clearance is generally also required for access to Sensitive Compartmented Information or Special Access Programs. The level of classification denotes the degree of protection required for information and the amount of damage that unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause to national security. Unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause (1) “damage,” in the case of confidential information; (2) “serious damage,” in the case of secret information; and (3) “exceptionally grave damage,” in the case of top secret information. To ensure the trustworthiness and reliability of personnel in positions with access to classified information, government agencies rely on a multiphased personnel security clearance process that includes the application submission phase, investigation phase, and adjudication phase. The application submission phase. A security officer from an agency (1) requests an investigation of an individual requiring a clearance; (2) forwards a personnel security questionnaire (standard form 86) using OPM’s e-QIP system or a paper copy of the standard form 86 to the individual to complete; (3) reviews the completed questionnaire; and (4) sends the questionnaire and supporting documentation, such as fingerprints, to OPM or the investigation service provider. The investigation phase. Federal investigative standards and OPM’s internal guidance are used to conduct and document the investigation of the applicant. The scope of information gathered in an investigation depends on the level of clearance needed and whether an investigation for an initial clearance or reinvestigation for a clearance renewal is being conducted. For example, the federal standards require that investigators collect information from national agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for all initial and renewal clearances. For an investigation for a confidential or secret clearance, investigators gather much of the information electronically. For an investigation for a top secret clearance, investigators gather additional information through more time-consuming efforts, such as traveling to conduct in-person interviews to corroborate information about an applicant’s employment and education. After the investigation is complete, the resulting investigative report is provided to the agency. According to the Performance Accountability Council’s Strategic Framework, for the purposes of IRTPA timeliness reporting, investigative time is the time in days from the receipt date of the completed personnel security package by the investigative service provider to the date the final investigative file is forwarded to the adjudicative facility if sent electronically. The adjudication phase. Adjudicators from an agency use the information from the investigative report to determine whether an applicant is eligible for a security clearance. To make clearance eligibility decisions, federal requirements specify that adjudicators consider guidelines in 13 specific areas that elicit information about (1) conduct that could raise security concerns and (2) factors that could allay those security concerns and permit granting a clearance. According to the Performance Accountability Council’s Strategic Framework, for the purposes of IRTPA timeliness reporting, adjudicative time is the time in days from the date the final investigative file is forwarded (or received electronically) to the adjudicative unit to the date of the adjudicative decision. Separate from, but related to, security clearances, are suitability determinations. Executive branch agencies conduct additional suitability investigations for individuals to ensure that they are suitable for employment in certain positions. For example, the Department of Justice conducts additional suitability checks to ensure applicants for jobs with the Drug Enforcement Agency have not used drugs. In addition, Health and Human Services conducts additional suitability investigations on applicants for jobs working with children. Similarly, the Intelligence Community requires a polygraph evaluation, among other things, to determine suitability for most positions. In light of long-standing delays and backlogs in processing security clearances, Congress set goals and established requirements for improving the clearance process in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. In 2005, GAO designated DOD’s personnel security clearance program as a high risk area. As can be seen in figure 1, a number of steps have been taken to reform the process, including: Role of the Office of Management and Budget in security clearance process. In June 2005, the President issued an executive order as part of the administration’s efforts to improve the security clearance process and implement the statutory clearance requirements in IRTPA. This order tasked the Director of OMB with a variety of functions in order to ensure that agency processes relating to determining eligibility for access to classified national security information were appropriately uniform, centralized, efficient, effective, timely, and reciprocal. These actions included taking a lead role in preparing a November 2005 plan to improve the timeliness of personnel security clearance processes governmentwide. Formation of the Joint Reform Team. The Joint Security Process Reform Team, also known as the Joint Security and Suitability Reform Team or Joint Reform Team, formed in June 2007, was established by the Director of National Intelligence and Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence through a memorandum of agreement to execute joint reform efforts to achieve IRTPA timeliness goals and improve the processes related to granting security clearances and determining suitability for government employment. Agencies included in this governmentwide reform effort are ODNI, DOD, OMB, and OPM. The Joint Reform Team continues to work on the reform effort under the Performance Accountability Council by providing progress reports, recommending research priorities, and overseeing the development and implementation of an information technology strategy, among other things. Since its formation, the Joint Reform Team under the Performance Accountability Council: (1) Submitted an initial reform plan to the President on April 30, 2008. The plan proposed a new process for determining clearance eligibility that departs from the current system in a number of ways, including the use of a more sophisticated electronic application, a more flexible investigation process, and the establishment of ongoing evaluation procedures between formal clearance investigations. The report was updated in December 2008 to include an outline of reform progress and further plans. (2) Issued an Enterprise Information Technology Strategy to support the reformed security and suitability process in March 2009. According to the report, the Joint Reform Team is pursuing an approach that leverages existing systems and capabilities, where applicable, and developing new tools where necessary. Formation of the Performance Accountability Council. Executive Order 13467 established the leadership structure for security and suitability reform headed by the Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council as the entity responsible for aligning security and suitability, holding agencies accountable for implementation, and overseeing progress toward the reformed vision. This executive order directed, among other things, that executive branch policies and procedures be aligned and use consistent standards, to the extent possible, for investigating and adjudicating whether an individual is (1) suitable for government employment, (2) fit to be a contract employee, or (3) eligible for access to classified information. The Performance Accountability Council is accountable to the President to achieve reform goals and also oversees newly designated Security and Suitability Executive Agents. The executive order designated the Director of National Intelligence as the Security Executive Agent, the Director of OPM as the Suitability Executive Agent, and the Deputy Director for Management at OMB as the chair of the council with the authority to designate officials from additional agencies to serve as members. The council currently comprises representatives from 11 executive agencies. In May 2010, the Performance Accountability Council proposed quality measures to address the different phases of the application process including validating need, e- application, investigation, and adjudication. The measures also include the responsible organization, population covered, collection method, and whether it is a current or future measure. Strategic Framework. The Performance Accountability Council issued a Strategic Framework in February 2010 to articulate the goals of the security and suitability process reform. The Strategic Framework sets forth a mission and strategic goals, performance measures, a communications strategy, roles and responsibilities, and metrics to measure the quality of security clearance investigations and adjudications. The government has reported that significant overall progress has been made to improve the investigation and adjudication of personnel security clearance applications in a timely manner. This is largely attributable to DOD, whose clearances comprise a vast majority of governmentwide initial clearances. IRTPA required the executive branch to develop a plan under which, to the extent practical, each authorized adjudicative agency would be required to make a determination on at least 90 percent of initial security clearances within an average of 60 days by December 17, 2009. Within this 60-day period, IRTPA also includes periods of 40 days for investigations and 20 days for adjudications. As can be seen in figure 2, according to the Performance Accountability Council’s February 2010 annual report to Congress, during the first quarter of fiscal year 2010, two agencies—the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office—met the timeliness requirement for investigations, seven agencies—the Departments of Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of State—met the timeliness objectives for adjudications, and five agencies—the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Department of State—met the 60-day IRTPA timeliness objective. Furthermore, we found that one of the agencies included in our review—the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency—met all of the IRTPA timeliness objectives for the second and third quarter, while the Defense Intelligence Agency met all of the IRTPA timeliness objectives in the second quarter and DOD, which comprises the vast majority of clearances, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, met all of the IRTPA timeliness objectives in the third quarter of fiscal year 2010. We also found that timeliness varied widely among executive branch agencies.