Large Backlog of Pending Clearances

The GAO report (GAO-04-202T) said that as of March 31, there was a backlog in the Defense Security Service of 61,000 reinvestigations which employees holding clearances need periodically in order to maintain them. There were also 101,000 new investigations or reinvestigations that had not been completed within deadlines and another 25,000 cases were awaiting a determination of clearance eligibility. The average time to process a clearance for contractor personnel is now more than a year, compared with about two months in 2001, GAO found. Reasons for the clog include the large numbers of new clearance requests, especially for the more labor-intensive top secret level, inaccurate projections of workload and lack of available staff, it said. In his letter to DoD, Davis said that if the problems persist, “I am confident that Congress will step in and legislate solutions.”