New data from the Office of the Director or National Intelligence indicates that agencies have issued 9 percent fewer security clearances to employees over the past three fiscal years, GovExec reported Friday.Eric Katz writes that the number of agency-issued clearances that give individuals access to classified information declined in fiscal 2013 for the second consecutive year to 777,000 from the nearly 800,000 reported in fiscal 2012.
The National Security Agency denied 7.2 percent of security clearance applications in fiscal 2013, compared with a 5.7-percent denial rate for the prior fiscal year, according to Katz’s article.
ODNI also found that federal civilian workers obtained more security clearances than contractor employees last year.
Agencies have been reviewing approved clearances to comply with a 1995 executive order regarding classified data access, Katz reports.
