GAO Protest Further Delays Government Efforts to Clear Investigations Backlog

Those hoping the Office of Personnel Management’s IDIQ contract for investigative services for the National Background Investigations Bureau will alleviate the investigations backlog for industry personnel with clearances through the Defense Security Service (DSS) will have to wait a few more months due to two GAO protests filed in February 2017, with a decision to be issued no later than May 24, 2017. The pending IDIQ contract is one of several measures the government has taken to ease the security investigations backlog, following a DSS announcement on January 6, 2017 that it would submit cleared contractor personnel with a TS (and other Tier 5) clearance for periodic reinvestigation every six years, versus the previous five-year standard. The policy extending the reinvestigation period in turn followed DoD guidance that eligible personnel should not be denied access based on an out-of-scope-investigation.