GAO insights into security clearance reform: hearing before the Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, One Hundred Tenth Congress, second session, hearing held in Washington, DC, July 30, 2008.

GAO insights into security clearance reform : hearing before the Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, One Hundred Tenth Congress, second session, hearing held in Washington, DC, July 30, 2008.

Efforts to reform personnel security clearance processes should consider, among other things, the following four key factors: (1) a strong requirements-determination process, (2) quality in all clearance processes, (3) metrics to provide a fuller picture of clearance processes, and (4) long-term funding requirements of security clearance reform. In February 2008, GAO noted that a sound requirements process is important because requesting a clearance for a position in which it will not be needed, or in which a lower-level clearance would be sufficient, will increase both costs and investigative workload unnecessarily. For example, the cost of obtaining and maintaining a top secret clearance for 10 years is approximately 30 times greater than the cost of obtaining and maintaining a secret clearance for the same period. Also, changing a position's clearance level from secret to top secret increases the investigative workload for that position about 20-fold.

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