The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, now responsible for conducting 95% of federal background investigations, has struggled to make the National Background Investigation Services fully operational since taking over the role in 2020.
On Capitol Hill yesterday, David Cattler, DCSA’s director for just over 90 days, told members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s subcommittee on government operations and the federal workforce that he plans to get both DCSA and NBIS working to their full potential.
“I’m committed to building a culture of accountability at DCSA that was lacking in the program,” he said. “Simply and directly, the delay in fielding NBIS is unacceptable to everyone. Oversight from GAO [Government Accountability Office] and Congress are important parts of this ecosystem of accountability. As we move forward, we will be guided by what is in the best interest of national security and what is in the best interest of the taxpayer.”
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency Director pledges to improve National Background Investigation Services. © C. Todd Lopez, DOD
The National Background Investigation Services is an information technology system meant to transform the background investigation process. According to DCSA, it will eventually replace similar systems that no longer meet the needs of the U.S. government and will be a key component of what’s billed as “Trusted Workforce 2.0,” or TW 2.0.
“The NBIS program supports the TW 2.0 reform effort as a federal IT system for end-to-end personnel vetting,” Cattler said. “When complete, NBIS will deliver robust data security, enhanced customer experience and integrate data access across the whole-of-government and cleared industry.”
TW 2.0 is a “whole-of-government” effort to reform the personnel security process and establish a single vetting system for the federal government. The NBIS will serve as the backbone of TW 2.0 and coordinate and connect the systems, interfaces, and databases that support “continuous vetting” of government personnel—a process where the backgrounds of security-cleared individuals are regularly reviewed to ensure they continue to meet security clearance requirements.
To gain a security clearance, potential employees spend a significant amount of time gathering personal information and entering it into a web-based system. © C. Todd Lopez, DOD
The NBIS system was meant to be deployed in 2019, but it has not yet done so. The Government Accountability Office has outlined in various reports a handful of key problems that DCSA must address to move forward successfully with NBIS.
“The GAO identified areas where DCSA and the Department of Defense needed to improve,” Cattler said. “Even before I became DCSA’s director … I closely studied these reports and noted GAO’s concerns. These recommendations do guide my focus and my direction as the director of DCSA. I have directed that we renew our focus on these recommendations, and we close the action items presented within them as soon as we can.”
A “secret” cover sheet typically designates a folder that contains classified material that can be viewed only by those with proper clearance. This folder contains no classified material, however, and the cover sheet itself is unclassified. © C. Todd Lopez, DOD
Cattler said that over the next 18 months, DCSA will prioritize five actions to advance NBIS delivery. These actions include modernizing and migrating NBIS applications, aligning acquisition and development actions, adapting the NBIS workforce, aligning program cost and service pricing, and strengthening cybersecurity protections.
While NBIS continues to develop, Cattler said DCSA has upgraded and hardened legacy systems and continues to use and maintain them to deliver vetting services.
Last year, Cattler said, DCSA’s personnel vetting mission conducted 2.7 million investigations, or about 10,700 investigations per day; made 668,000 adjudicative decisions; and maintained continuous vetting of over 3.8 million people in the trusted workforce.
