Sens. John Tester, D-Mont., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, have sent OPM and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence a letter asking them to hold off on finalizing a proposed rule that could expand the number of federal jobs designated as “sensitive” to national security.
The senators, who lead the federal workforce subcommittee, sent the letter ahead of a hearing they have planned to examine how the federal government conducts background checks and designates certain positions as sensitive.
Under the proposal, positions designated as sensitive to national security may not require a security clearance, but they would require background checks and reinvestigations. However, this raises questions that need to be considered about “potentially significant costs associated with carrying out those investigations,” as well as “the impact an influx of hundreds of thousands of additional pending background investigations would have on a process that is already deeply flawed and has failed on far too many occasions,” according to the letter.
It also points out that DoD estimates that another 500,000 positions could be deemed sensitive under the rule, while already some five million Americans inside and outside the government have been granted a clearance – 1.4 million of them top secret clearances.
