Dingbat Billing Dust-up Shuts Down Security Clearances

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A minor billing dispute between the Pentagon and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is threatening operations throughout the U.S. national security community.

Last month, OPM — which currently handles background investigations and issues security clearances for the defense/intelligence community — abruptly announced it was shutting down the clearance process for new employees.

The decision didn’t register a blip on most Americans’ radar, but it sent shockwaves through the “cleared” community. They know better than anyone how critical those clearances are for keeping national security projects moving forward.

The government has actually been suffering for a while from a shortage of cleared employees. Since Sept. 11 and the Iraq invasion, it’s been creating top-secret intelligence and defense jobs faster than it can vet and approve people to fill them. So OPM’s decision made a bad situation that much worse.

Baffled by the news of OPM’s decision, Congress asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to find out what happened. Today, the GAO gave its answer. And it’s something just short of unbelievable.

First some important background: the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) took over the clearance process last year from the Pentagon, which had made a royal mess of it. The Pentagon agreed to pay OPM a 25 percent premium on top of their costs for investigating and issuing clearances; in return, OPM promised to straighten out the situation.

To make a long story short, GAO investigators found that the Pentagon tried to back out of the deal. They don’t name him directly, but they indicate that Stephen Cambone, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, decided he didn’t want to pay the 25 percent premium, and told OPM to stick it.

OPM pointed to the contract. Cambone went crying to the White House, asking for the Office of Management and Budget to intervene (in his favor, we can safely assume). OMB told the two to go back outside, play nice and figure it out on their own.

To date, there’s no resolution. The system’s still shut down. Both DoD and OPM are conducting separate investigations, GAO says, and they’ll arrive at conclusions in a few months. Meantime, work just won’t get done. In other words, the two are sulking in their respective corners — for the time being, anyway.

What does that mean to you and me? It means our national security has been compromised for months over a $40 million billing dispute. That’s about how much the Pentagon spends when Rumsfeld sneezes. The matter is easily settled: either party could fold. The two could split the difference. Or the White House could show why it’s called the Executive Branch — make an executive decision.

Instead, it’s going to be dragged out for months, while seats go empty. Projects sit idle. Documents go untranslated. Terrorists go un-caught.

Late Update: The Washington Post reported today that — on the eve of a Congressional hearing — the Pentagon found enough money to re-start investigations for “Secret”-level clearances. These are about the lowest form of clearance — some have called them “holy water” clearances, because the background checks are so cursory you might as well simply have holy water sprinkled on you. We’ll have more on this tomorrow.

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