Originally published Security clearance reforms advancing in 2026 defense bill on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/inside-ic/2025/08/security-clearance-reforms-advancing-in-2026-defense-bill/ at Federal News Network
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Congressional defense committees are advancing legislative provisions aimed at expanding the number of individuals with security clearances.
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the fiscal 2026 defense authorization bill would extend how long a service member or Defense Department employee stays eligible for classified information to up to five years from departing DoD. The current cap is 24 months before a new investigation would usually be required.
Completing a background investigation typically takes at least several weeks, if not months, depending on the level of clearance. Delays in the process often slow down government programs and contracts while individuals wait to get cleared.
Meanwhile, the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the 2026 bill would allow companies to build a deeper bench of staff to work on classified programs while they wait for employees to go through the clearance process.
The provision, attached to the House NDAA as an amendment offered by Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), would allow defense contractors who work on classified programs to pay for additional employees to undergo background investigations.
Those staff would then be available if other employees leave the company or are otherwise unavailable to work on the program.
Tim Brennan, vice president of technology policy and government relations at the Professional Services Council, said a dearth of cleared workers has been an increasing concern for industry in recent years.
“We are fishing in such a small pond right now with folks that are cleared and then have the expertise to do that cleared work, that I’m a little nervous about it,”
Congress has pushed agencies to declassify more information in recent years. It’s unclear whether those efforts have made any progress yet, but agencies are traditionally reluctant to declassify information.
Instead, many good government groups are concerned that agencies continue to overclassify information, meaning only cleared workers in government or industry can contribute to that work.
“Everyone understands that the pool is too small,” Brennan said. “We don’t encourage enough young folks to get into some of these cleared positions. We’re getting, we’re stealing from each other. Federal government has to steal from companies. Companies steal from the federal government. We don’t make it easy enough for veterans to take and transfer their clearances into government work.”
The provisions moving forward in the dueling versions of the defense policy bill, Brennan said, could both help address a challenge of getting more people cleared and working on national security issues faster.
“The general idea that HASC and SASC both have is, let’s make it easier to be part of this ecosystem,” he said.
The legislative proposals come as agencies implement governmentwide reforms under the “Trusted Workforce 2.0” initiative. The goal is to streamline and modernize how agencies and industry conduct security clearance checks and other personnel vetting processes.
The initiative has resulted in new processes, such as continuous vetting, that has helped reduce background investigation backlogs and flagged potential issues with security clearance holders earlier in the process.
However, government and industry officials are mixed on the results of Trusted Workforce 2.0 so far. Many report positive changes, like continuous vetting, but are lukewarm on whether the effort is delivering substantial reform to the overarching vetting process.
Brennan said the advancing legislative proposals are “quick wins” against the backdrop of more substantive policy and cultural changes needed at agencies to fully realize the goals of Trusted Workforce 2.0.
“That’s the stage we’re still at – how do we focus on what we agree on, what we really want to solve short term and then work on the longer term issues, things like polygraph, and those are the things that are really challenging,” Brennan said.
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Originally published Security clearance reforms advancing in 2026 defense bill on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/inside-ic/2025/08/security-clearance-reforms-advancing-in-2026-defense-bill/ at Federal News Network
Originally published Federal News Network