Numerous proposals to tighten procedures for granting and renewing the security clearances that are required for many federal jobs are now circulating in Congress plans are being made to combine them into a bipartisan bill. For initial clearances, the emphasis is on getting greater cooperation from local law enforcement agencies during background investigations, while for current employees, it’s on greater follow-up to detect potential security risks—especially since reinvestigations for certain clearances are done as far as 10 years apart. A House Democratic-sponsored plan (HR-4022) would require the government to set up a system of continuous monitoring of information including arrest records, certain financial transactions and other information relevant to clearances. It also would require that more of the investigative work be brought in-house—the bulk of it was contracted out by the Clinton administration—a potential sticking point for Republicans, however. A bipartisan Senate plan offered last year would among other things require periodic, random partial reinvestigations during the normal cycle for conducting full reinvestigations. Meanwhile, OPM has said that federal employees, not contractors, will conduct the final review of an investigation, and legislation has been enacted giving OPM’s inspector general access to funds allowing it to more closely audit the clearance process.