The President has signed into law key provisions of the Security Clearance Oversight and Reform Enhancement – SCORE – Act, as an amendment to HR-2860, the OPM IG Act. The bill came out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and was passed by the Senate in October.
The bill authorizes the OPM inspector general to use OPM Revolving Fund amounts to audit, investigate and provide oversight for the activities of that fund – which is used for background investigations.
“The cases of Edward Snowden and the tragic events that transpired at the Navy Yard underscore the importance of fixing the faults in our system,” said co-sponsor Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. “While we have a ways to go to make sure this system is working as it should, at a minimum we need to ensure that agency watchdogs have the authority and resources they need to conduct oversight and investigate wrongdoing.
Language in the fiscal 2014 defense-spending bill also requires GAO to examine the security clearance process and report how agencies can streamline and improve clearance investigations, and it requires an examination of background investigation processes for collecting law enforcement records.
