Personnel Vetting, Suitability, Clearance, and Credentialing Efforts Move Forward

The federal government’s efforts to modernize and rationalize its workforce vetting policies and protocols continue to move forward, with actions coming at the tail end of the last administration and in the first month of the Biden administration.

A week before the Trump administration concluded, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released for comment the long-awaited Federal Personnel Vetting Core Doctrine, which articulates the government’s policy direction and builds upon the Trusted Workforce 2.0 initiative.  

The following day, on January 14, 2021, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued sweeping policy changes to clearance adjudication in Simplifying, Centralizing, and Unifying the Established Administrative Process for Unfavorable Security Clearance Eligibility Hearings and Appeals, Including National Industrial Security Program (NISP) Contractor Employee Unfavorable Sensitive Compartmented Information Eligibility Hearings and Appeals. The directive goes into effect no later than September 30, 2022.

“Historically most defense components had their own policies and processes for vetting personnel, with different procedures for civilians, contractors, and military. The new DOD policy streamlines all personnel from many components into a single funnel, tracking from the OPM vetting doctrine,” said Chris Keeven, partner at the law firm Shaw Bransford & Roth, P.C.  “This change provides a clearer, more consistent and straightforward process that benefits the government, contractors, applicants, and taxpayers.”

Mr. Keeven also noted that the vetting doctrine could enable the vision of the Senior Executive Service (SES) as a mobile and interchangeable government leadership cadre. “Compartmentalized adjudication has prevented the government from meeting the vision of a mobile executive leadership cadre,” he told FEDagent.

A February 4, 2021 memorandum from President Biden, Revitalizing America’s Foreign Policy and National Security Workforce, Institutions, and Partnerships, specifically directs the federal government to continue moving forward on the personnel vetting core doctrine, calling on agencies to “assess implementation of security clearance reforms and reciprocity proposals, additional reforms to eliminate bias, and ensure efficient timelines for completion of security clearance investigations,” as one of many action items.

Tracking the implementation and success of continuous vetting, which is supplanting traditional periodic reinvestigations, is one area that Mr. Keeven suggested following as a bellwether for success of the vetting doctrine. 

“These are good and needed policies,” Mr. Keeven concluded. “The key will be how the rubber meets the road as they are implemented.”

Note: Shaw Bransford & Roth is the publisher of FEDagent.