Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, have sent a letter to OMB director Sylvia Burwell requesting that OMB form a taskforce to review and improve information sharing among federal, state and local agencies during background investigations for security clearances.
OPM officials recently testified before the homeland security panel that finding violent behavior or criminal records can be difficult because of different information sharing rules among the entities involved. For example, they vary widely among the nation’s 22,000 law enforcement agencies, which became an issue in retrospect after the Navy Yard shootings.
OMB directs the Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council, which leads government-wide reforms of the security clearance process. Tester and Portman asked Burwell in their letter to convene a task force (led by OMB’s deputy director for management) to “examine the current process and provide recommendations for how to improve the sharing of relevant documentation between federal background investigators and local authorities.”
It asks OMB to quickly establish the task force, and report to the relevant congressional committees to inform legislative measures to improve information sharing.
