Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010

After resolving differences with the Senate version, the House version (HR 2701) of the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) was signed by the President and became Public Law No: 111-259 on October 7, 2010. (This is the first IAA to become law since 2004; others either died in Congress or were successfully vetoed.) Here are the highlights:

• Requires reports, reports and more reports.
• Establishes the Inspector General (IG) of the Intelligence Community (IC).
• Requires ODNI to issue a directive concerning GAO access to IC information.

Reports containing the following information regarding security clearance are required:

1. Total number of active security clearances at each level as of October 1 of the preceding year and the number granted during the preceding fiscal year.

2. For each IC element by level of clearance:

• Time it took to grant clearances during the preceding fiscal year, expressed in terms of the average for the fastest 80%, fastest 90%, slowest 20% and slowest 10%.
• Number of pending investigations as of October 1 that have remained pending for 4 months or less, 4 to 8 months, 8 to 12 months, and more than 12 months.
• Percentage of cases that resulted in clearance denial/revocation during the previous fiscal year.
• Percentage of investigations during the previous fiscal year that contained incomplete/insufficient information.
• Number of cases that took more than 1 year to complete by investigative and adjudicative agencies and the cause for delays.

3. No later than April 2011 a report on Government-wide investigative standards, adjudicative guidelines, and quality metrics; a plan to improve professional development of adjudicators; and metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of clearance reciprocity.

4. No later than April 2011 a report on the feasibility of reducing the number of investigative and adjudicative agencies to 2 each within a year and reducing the number of investigative and adjudicative agencies to 1 each within 4 years.

5. Not later than April 2011 a report by the IC IG on reciprocity of security clearances between IC agencies.