Federal Managers Association

In the News

• NIEHAUS QUOTED IN THE WASHINGTON POST - March 21, 2014

• Comments on the Suitability and Security Processes Review Report to President Obama

  By Joe Davidson, The Washington Post
  
  
  FMA National President Patricia Niehaus was quoted in Joe Davidson's recent Federal Diary column in The Washington Post. The article focused on improving the security clearance process and recommendations made by the Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council to President Obama.
  
  
  “The Federal Managers Association reviewed the report to the President and agrees with the broad goals it outlines, including increasing the availability and access to critical information, ensuring that information all federal employees and contractors are already required to disclose actually gets reported, and reducing risk in the clearance process," Niehaus said. "That is why we support the bipartisan legislation Sens. Susan Collins and Claire McCaskill introduced last year, the Enhanced Security Clearance Act. This legislation would require random automated, unobtrusive reviews of all individuals with security clearances, to confirm that they are providing information the law currently requires. While we cannot prevent every tragedy, we can and should take reasonable and prudent efforts to eliminate gaps in the security clearance process to protect our citizens and sensitive data.”

  
  

  "FMA represents federal managers, not contractors or private companies, so we look at this issue from the federal perspective. Security clearances, both initial and re-investigation, are expensive. Taking another look at who really needs a clearance is simply exercising fiscal responsibility. And with more than five million people with clearances, it is important to be certain that that many people actually need the level of clearance and access to information that they have to perform their jobs."
  
  
  To read the full article, please click here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/too-many-people-with-security-clearances-but-cuts-could-help-some-feds-hurt-others/2014/03/20/1f1d011a-b05e-11e3-a49e-76adc9210f19_story.html
  
  

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