background investigation

In today’s Federal Newscast, the Department of the Interior inspector general has referred one of their investigations into Secretary Ryan Zinke’s actions to the Department of Justice for it to take over.

The Navy is setting up new hubs and surge areas to deal with its background investigation backlog.

A former background investigator pleaded guilty to a charge stemming from her falsification of work on background investigations of federal employees and contractors.

From reauthorization and reorganizations of the Homeland Security Department to whistleblower protections, security clearances and burrowing, these bills are worth keeping an eye on as the Senate debates, amends and votes on them.

GAO has put security background checks on the high-risk list. David Berteau joins Federal Drive with Tom Temin to share the industry reaction.

The backlog in federal security background checks seems impervious to efforts to cut it down, especially with no CIO at the Office of Personnel Management.

President-elect Donald Trump’s suggested hiring freeze on the federal workforce could have major implications for federal contractors. With possible plans to cut the size of the federal workforce through attrition and retirements, some contractors say industry may have to shoulder more of the workload, since the capability requirements won’t change even as government shrinks.

A new audit from the OPM Inspector General’s office reveals shortcomings in the steps taken by Office of Personnel Management and its contractors to make sure background investigations undergo quality reviews. The audit pointed to a lack of oversight on OPM’s part in making sure contractors actually review cases and said some of the companies that employ case reviewers failed to keep track of records showing the contractors had undergone proper training.

Matthew Baum, a former investigator in OPM’s now-defunct Office of Federal Investigations, questions whether politics and privatization went too far by outsourcing background investigations.

Ten years ago, the federal government was faced with a crisis in managing security clearances: costly delays and backlogs in performing background investigations. The Office of Personnel Management stepped in and tremendous progress clearing the backlog and meeting strict new timelines mandated by Congress. But some critics now worry too much focus has been put on speed in the process — and not enough attention has been given to quality. In our special report, Questioning Clearances, Federal News Radio examines why efforts to measure the quality of background investigations have stalled.