Mark Warner: NBIB’s Pilot Efforts Key to Security Clearance Backlog Decrease

Mark Warner, D-Va., said that the National Background Investigations Bureau has seen improvement in the handling of security clearances as the agency experiences a 40 percent decrease in backlog, Federal News Network reported Friday. 

Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and 2019 Wash100 Award winner, told the publication that the recent development may eventually lead to a “steady state” of 250,000 manageable case files. He added that NBIB launched pilot programs on new investigative techniques to quicken the vetting process ahead of the planned transfer of security clearance responsibilities to the Department of Defense.

“I meet with them on a regular basis to make sure that the transition is moving smoothly,” he said. “So far I give it pretty good marks.”

The DoD’s Consolidated Adjudications Facility took an average of 30 and 42 days to process the initial secret and top secret cases during the second quarter of fiscal 2019, while processing for periodic reinvestigations took 100 days. The Performance Accountability Council requires adjunctions to conclude within an average of 20 days.