OMB Sees Progress on Clearance Processing

By: fedweek

OMB has reported that agencies are making “significant progress” in meeting certain timeliness goals on security clearances, which are increasingly necessary for federal jobs and where delays in processing have long been a sore point for job applicants, current employees and managers. OMB said that for initial clearances from agencies served by OPM—which now handles 90 percent of all clearances, after taking over substantial work in the area from DoD—the average time for investigations plus time for adjudications meet the goal of 120 days total in 80 percent of the cases. That goal was set by a 2004 law in reaction to data showing that the average time to conduct the investigation had been about one year for top secret clearances and five to six months for secret/confidential clearances.