No Secret What's Wrong With Clearances

Watson said efforts are underway to win congressional permission to shift money this year to sustain operations at the Defense Security Service. She also said that some money should be in the pipeline for fiscal 2008 for new hires to improve estimates of how many security clearance investigations will be needed each year.

Voinovich pledged to do his part to ensure that senior Defense officials understand that more funding is needed, noting that he has a meeting scheduled next week with Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England.

Yesterday's hearing was the fourth held by Akaka and Voinovich to check on the administration's progress in meeting goals laid out in the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act.

Under the law, 90 percent of applications for an initial security clearance are to be completed in 60 days -- 40 days for a background investigation and 20 days for an adjudication, the decision on whether the applicant should receive a clearance. The government has until December 2009 to meet the requirement.

Johnson said intelligence agencies are organizing a research and development project to identify the best ways to meet the goal. He and Kathy L. Dillaman, associate director for investigative services at the Office of Personnel Management, testified that significant progress has been made in improving the turnaround time on background checks and in reducing a backlog of cases.

Timothy R. Sample, president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a nonprofit group, said he was skeptical of data showing improvements. "The current process does not allow for valid, unbiased empirical data to be collected," he said.

Talk Shows

Brett Hovington, chief of the FBI's community relations unit, will be the guest on "FedTalk" at 11 a.m. today on Federalnewsradio.com and WFED radio (1050 AM).

Clay Johnson III will be the guest on "The IBM Business of Government Hour" at 9 a.m. Saturday on WJFK radio (106.7 FM).

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.