Defense Firms Battle Long Wait for Security Clearances
October 20 2018 - 07:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Doug Cameron
Black tarpaulins used to cover parts of a $12 billion nuclear
submarine General Dynamics Corp. is building in Groton, Conn.,
blocking the view of workers who lacked security clearance to see
the top-secret components underneath.
That is one of many workarounds that General Dynamics and other
defense companies have used to continue work on tens of billions of
dollars in defense contracts during an unprecedented backlog in
security clearances.
The number of people awaiting security clearance for
defense-industry work has more than tripled over the past four
years to almost half a million, according to the National
Background Investigations Bureau.
That is exacerbating a workforce crunch for makers of warships,
jet fighters and cybersecurity systems that are already struggling
to replace a wave of retiring engineers at a time of record-low
unemployment and competition from tech companies.
"These folks are like gold," Harris Corp. chief executive Bill
Brown said, referring to workers with security clearance. Harris
said this week that it plans to merge with L3 Technologies Inc. The
combined company would have 22,000 cleared staff, almost half its
workforce.
The backlog began to climb in 2013, after former national
security contractor Edward Snowden leaked a huge cache of documents
his clearance had allowed him to access. The Pentagon tightened
clearance requirements for staff and contractors, but budget cuts
left unchanged at around 7,000 the number of workers that conduct
the background checks. Another 1,000 have been hired over the past
year, said the bureau.
The wait time to obtain "secret" clearances rose to 543 days in
the second quarter from 510 days at the end of last year, according
to the bureau. The wait time to renew such a clearance is almost
700 days. Including nondefense workers, the backlog is almost
700,000, the bureau said. Some 4 million U.S. citizens have active
security clearances.
Some companies are starting to clear prospective employees in
college to avoid being caught without the workers they need if they
win a big contract. "We're now doing blue-sky hiring," said Rick
Edwards, executive vice president of the international unit of
Lockheed Martin Corp, who formerly ran its missiles unit.
They also are facing tougher competition from tech companies,
including Facebook Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. that are
recruiting the same future experts in cybersecurity, artificial
intelligence and autonomy.
"The competition for talent is now much broader," said Horacio
Rozanski, chief executive of Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp, one
of the largest information-technology contractors for the Pentagon
and intelligence agencies.
Still, defense executives said the sector remains a draw for
employees eager to work on some of the most challenging engineering
problems, even if the path to work is tougher than at a tech or
financial company.
Classified projects requiring the highest level of clearances
are the fastest-growing part of the Pentagon budget. A quarter of
annual sales at Northrop Grumman Corp., which is building a new
B-21 bomber and sensitive spy satellites, involves classified work,
twice the level of a decade ago.
The Pentagon is taking over the clearance process from the
Office of Personnel Management over the next three years, to link
defense department objectives more closely with the clearance
process.
Some lawmakers have said that transition is taking too long.
"This is a system that is completely, completely broken," Sen.
Mark Warner (D., Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said during an April hearing on the clearance
process.
That leaves big defense contractors for now needing to find
other ways to complete Pentagon contracts like the submarine to
carry intercontinental nuclear missiles that General Dynamics is
building in Groton.
In addition to placing tarps on top-secret parts of the
submarine, Groton shipyard security director Vince Lisi said
General Dynamics has installed separate security gates around the
ship for cleared and uncleared workers and conducted its own
initial background checks to speed the federal process.
When General Dynamics employees cleared the screening process,
Mr. Lisi said they often came in batches that don't match the
skills needed at that time. The shipyard might receive clearances
for 100 pipe-fitters when what it needed that month was 50 more
welders, he said. That situation has improved and the shipyard is
no longer experiencing delays in securing worker clearances.
Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 20, 2018 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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