Greater Consistency in Clearances Sought

President Bush has issued an executive order that seeks to address one of the long-standing bottlenecks in the clearance process, the lack of common standards and reciprocity among agencies regarding who is eligible to have access to certain classified information or physical locations. The order said background investigations and clearance adjudications should use consistent standards to “the extent possible” and that each successively higher level should build on, but not duplicate, the ones below it. Investigations and adjudications further “shall be mutually and reciprocally accepted by all agencies” and an agency generally may not establish additional requirements. The exceptions would be when stricter requirements are mandated by law or when they are necessary to address significant needs unique to the agency involved or to protect national security.