STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD FOR BRIAN DUNBAR, ASSISTANT
DIRECTOR, SPECIAL SECURITY DIRECTORATE, NATIONAL
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY CENTER:
SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE
HEARING ON SECURITY CLEARANCE REFORM
Wednesday, 7 March 2018; 9:30 a.m.
Room 106, Dirksen Senate Office Building

Chairman Burr, Vice Chairman Warner, and Members of the Committee,
thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss security
clearance challenges and reforms.
As the Assistant Director (AD), Special Security Directorate (SSD),
National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), Office of the Director
of National Intelligence (ODNI), I am responsible for supporting the DNI in his
role as Security Executive Agent (SecEA) who, along with the other members of
the Security, Suitability, and Credentialing Performance Accountability Council
is responsible for leading and supporting security clearance standardization and
reform across the U.S. Government. The National Background Investigations
Bureau within the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Under
Secretary of Defense for Intelligence are partners in the security clearance reform
effort, and their representatives are here with me today.
The security clearance process generally involves determining an
individual’s need for access to classified information or to hold a sensitive
position, facilitating reciprocity for existing clearances, or completing a
background investigation, reviewing investigation results, making an eligibility
determination, and periodically reviewing the individual’s continued eligibility.
The DNI, as the SecEA, is responsible for developing, issuing, and
overseeing effective, efficient, and uniform policies and procedures governing the
conduct of investigations, adjudications, and, as applicable, polygraphs for
eligibility for access to classified information, or to hold a sensitive position. The
NCSC has been designated as the lead staff support element to fulfill the DNI’s
SecEA responsibilities, and SSD serves as the primary NCSC element to address
these duties. Departments and agencies are responsible for building and executing
personnel security programs that are in compliance with these policies and
procedures. These responsibilities extend to approximately four million national
security cleared personnel.
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In exercising the SecEA’s responsibilities, we work closely with the
agencies responsible for administering national security programs and for
conducting investigations, adjudications and polygraphs. This ensures that our
policies and practices are informed by those working to protect national security
equities and ensure a trusted workforce.
I am going to focus my remarks on the efforts taken to improve the security
clearance processes and procedures, reciprocity, and the general challenges we
face. In partnership with the Performance Accountability Council, the DNI is
committed to transforming the security clearance process, and remains committed
to providing departments and agencies with policy direction while continuously
assessing ways to improve. We have issued guidance to the community on a wide
variety of issues and have achieved a number of successes to this point.
• As the SecEA, the DNI has issued six Security Executive Agent Directives
(SEADs) on issues ranging from Security Executive Agent Authorities and
Responsibilities to Continuous Evaluation Policy and Requirements, with
two planned future SEADs on reciprocity and temporary access,
respectively. These policies were extensively coordinated within the
interagency and executive branch and represent consensus governmentwide approaches to very complicated issues.
• The DNI has successfully launched the Quality Assessment Reporting Tool
(QART), which enables the assessment of the quality of background
investigations. QART will be used to inform investigative policy and
training. To date, multiple agencies have registered in QART, and the tool
presently contains over 10,000 investigative entries.
• We have implemented efforts to track and report on the application of
security clearance reciprocity, and continue to see improvement in this
area. Reciprocal acceptance of background investigations and national
security determinations support employee mobility and mission
accomplishment ― both objectives are critical to ensuring that we use our
human resources with maximum effectiveness.
To provide the Committee some metrics on reciprocity, in FY 2017, the core IC
agencies — the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the
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National Security Agency — as well as the Drug Enforcement Agency, the
Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy, the Department of
State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Treasury Department, and the United
States Coast Guard, reciprocally accepted 95.3% of cases reviewed. While we
oversee the security clearance portion of this, there are other elements of the process
involved which are beyond the control of security elements (e.g., time from human
resources/industry processing to submission to security for determination).
We are actively engaged in modernizing security clearance processes,
including implementing Continuous Evaluation (CE), which will conduct
automated records checks on a segment of covered individuals between the periodic
reinvestigation cycles when security-relevant information may go unreported to
security officials. CE is being implemented across the Executive Branch in phases
due to the potential increased investigative and adjudicative workload, complexity
of developing the associated technology, and the unknown impact to agency
workforce requirements. The initial operating capability of the ODNI CE system is
available on the classified network and is performing eligibility checks. Our goal is
to deploy a fully operational CE System in 2018 that will be available to all
executive branch agencies.
Additionally, we partner with the Director, Office of Personnel Management
(OPM), who serves as the Suitability and Credentialing Executive Agent, to align
the security clearance process with suitability and credentialing. The following
achievements have resulted from this collaboration:
• Creation of the National Training Standards for Background Investigators,
National Security Adjudicators, and Suitability Adjudicators, which aligns
training requirements across national security, suitability and credentialing.
• Issuance of the Federal Investigative Standards (FIS), which align
investigative requirements for suitability and national security, building
upon previous investigative work, and avoiding duplication, where
possible.
• Clarifying guidance to the position designation process using the
Position Designation Tool. The tool aids in the classification of national
security positions regardless of a requirement for access to classified
information (i.e., law enforcement officers).
While there have been improvements in some areas, we must continue to focus
on the way forward. In a nutshell, the enterprise must become more nimble, agile,
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modern, and reflective of advancements in information technology. While we have
been engaged in implementing and refining ongoing security reform initiatives, we
must continue to pursue opportunities to revolutionize the way we do business. A
developing initiative is the “Trusted Workforce 2.0.” Trusted Workforce 2.0 is an
enterprise effort, in concert with partner organizations, which will bring together key
senior leadership, change agents, and innovative thinkers to chart a bold path forward
for the security, suitability, and credentialing vetting enterprise.
While significant reform progress has taken place for our vetting processes,
we still have substantial challenges that necessitate concrete and transformative
action to directly reshape both the pace and scope of improvement in this arena to
implement revolutionary change. We will review with a “clean slate,” and a
forward-leaning approach, how we might best effectively and efficiently deliver a
trusted workforce in the future. Trusted Workforce 2.0 begins in earnest this month.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Committee. I will be
happy to address any questions.

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