Background Check Delays Expected Following USIS Stop-Work Order

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

The Federal Times reported that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have suspended background checks and most contracts with contractor USIS after a cyber-attack may have accessed the personal information of more than 25,000 DHS employees. A multiagency cyber response team now is working to identify the scope of the attack and how many employees were affected. DHS has also stopped providing sensitive information to USIS, according to a DHS official, which means that many of its contracts are in a state of suspension. The security breach is now creating a potential significant backlog in the security clearance-granting process. 

The OPM, which issued a stop-work order on USIS’ security clearance work on August 6 to protect federal employees, said in a statement that while the suspension remains in effect, the agency is “continuing to process background investigations using other available assets.” With no work allowed, USIS has reportedly furloughed 2,000 workers. The security investigations those workers had begun are stuck “pending completion,” in a limbo that might not be resolved for three months since a stop-work order can last 90 days.

Since USIS typically handles 21,000 background checks a month, three months of downtime will leave contractors and agencies alike waiting for thousands of vital employees. Those waits will translate into delayed work, and more delayed background checks in the future.

“USIS has been really at the forefront of doing security clearance investigations for many years now,” said Evan Lesser, co-founder and managing director of ClearanceJobs.com as saying. “And shutting them down or pulling them out of the picture is going to cause delays — not just in new clearances but reinvestigations.”

Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president of the Professional Services Council, an industry group, said that the longer USIS is sidelined “the more significant the impact … Every day new investigation requests come in,” he says.

To mitigate the impact, the OPM is “shifting the fieldwork previously done by USIS to other contractors and federal staff as appropriate,” the agency said. “While this may cause a delay for some investigations as we make the adjustments, we are working to minimize any delays and we remain committed, first and foremost, to the security and quality of our background investigations.”