WASHINGTON, D.C – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, pressed administration officials and private sector leaders on the importance of security clearance reform during a hearing before the Intelligence Committee today. Senator King pushed the panel on the need to better streamline the security clearance process by improving the management infrastructure and ensuring there are clear and uniform guidelines across departments and agencies.

            “If John McCain were here he’d say, ‘Who can we fire?’ This is a pure management problem it seems to me…” Senator King said. “You mean a person within the Homeland Security Department, who has a clearance, to move from one job in Homeland Security to another job in Homeland Security takes one hundred days?...That’s preposterous.”

Through his position on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator King has worked to increase efficiency and strengthen security apparatus within the Intelligence Community. Last year, Senator King voted in favor of the Fiscal Year 2018 Intelligence Authorization Act, which included several provisions he championed and incorporated important authorities and requirements to recruit the best and brightest from every background and every needed skill set, get them clearances quickly and responsibly, and give them the resources they need to meet these challenges. 

Witnesses before the committee today were Director Brenda Farrell, DOD Strategic Human Capital Management, Government Accountability Office (GAO); President & CEO Kevin Phillips, ManTech International Corporation; Vice President Jane Chappell, Global Intelligence Solutions (GIS), Raytheon; President & CEO David Berteau, Professional Services Council (PSC); Director Charles Phalen Jr., National Background Investigation Bureau (NBIB), Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Assistant Director Brian Dunbar Special Security Directorate, National Counterintelligence & Security Center (NCSC), Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI); Director Garry Reid Defense Intelligence (Intelligence & Security), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USDI); Director Daniel Payne, Defense Security Service (DSS), Department of Defense (DOD).

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