Defense Security and Counterintelligence Agency Unveils New Website

The new Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) website went live last week, replacing the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) and Defense Security Service (DSS) websites as the authoritative resource for background investigation and security clearance processing. The NBIB and DSS links will stay active through December 2019 while at the same time rerouting users to the DCSA site found at https://www.dcsa.mil. Once fully transitioned to DCSA, the Office of Personnel Management and Department of Defense (DoD) will acknowledge the history and legacy of both NBIB and DSS, and disestablish the organizations. According to the new DCSA Director Charles Phalen, the transition will be smooth and transparent for the cleared workforce and won’t cause any major impacts to investigations and clearance processing.

With the investigation backlog down to just under 350,000 cases as of late August, it will be interesting to see if DCSA is ready to take on the new caseload and make good on promises of streamlined efficiency. The DoD’s Continuous Evaluation Program now has over 1.4 million security clearance holders enrolled into it, negating the need for the thousands of periodic reinvestigations that would have doubled the number of investigations in progress. With the transition of investigation processing to DCSA, that leaves the adjudications process as the remaining piece of the puzzle needing attention and resources in order to clear the last hurdle for clearance eligibility. This piece is still the responsibility of the agency sponsoring the clearance, so no matter how fast the investigation gets done, review and adjudication timeliness are still issues.