Bingo - twice

And he has no Secretary of Defense, so I guess that means he gets to call the shots without going behind anyone's back.

After months of speculation and a standing September deadline, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday officially moving the federal government’s background and security clearance investigations to the Defense Department and giving the receiving office a new name.

After the 2015 breach of Office of Personnel Management systems that compromised sensitive personal information of more than 21 million current and prospective federal employees and contractors, the Obama administration created a new background investigation office called the National Background Investigation Bureau. But the administration also charged the Defense Department with supporting NBIB by building and managing the underlying IT systems, which would be called the National Background Investigation Service.

Congress later passed language in the 2018 defense authorization bill giving the Defense Department responsibility for meeting its own clearance needs, which make up about 70 percent of all investigations work. The remaining 30 percent of civilian agency clearances would remain with NBIB and OPM.

[...]

The newly named office [the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency] will be taking over all background investigations work by the end of September—a schedule set well before Wednesday’s executive order—but will get to work on some aspects much sooner.

“[N]o later than June 24, 2019, the DCSA shall serve as the primary entity for conducting effective, efficient and secure background investigations for the federal government for determining whether covered individuals are or continue to be eligible for access to classified information or eligible to hold a sensitive position,” according to the order, giving the office just two months to take over the new continuous evaluation program for current clearance holders.

[...]

The order also calls for the secretary of Defense to take a leading role in ensuring the underlying technology stays up to date to avoid another breach.

  NextGov

In June 2018 the Trump administration identified the security clearance process as one of many targets for drastic government reform.

“The Administration recognizes that background investigations are critical to enabling national security missions and ensuring public trust in the workforce across the Government,” a White House report said at the time.

The report noted that the “background investigation inventory” – the cases to be processed – had risen to three-quarters of a million and that the average Top Secret background investigation takes four times as long as it should.

  ABC

Three quarters of a million? Are there that many people who need security clearances? And what are they doing in the meantime?

On Wednesday [National Background Investigations Bureau Director Charles] Phalen told a security conference the backlog has since been reduced by 32 percent, to just under 500,000 cases.

Oh, okay, then. WTF?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.