Security clearances for Secret Level are taking a year, Top Secret 18 months.

[MarathonMike]

DSS has an insane backlog of ongoing and new security investigations. 700,000 maybe even more now. That has been the case since Obama was still in office and is now taking longer since the need for cleared people continues to increase. But the Media willfully ignores that fact because it diminishes their juicy story that Jared Kushner MUST be shady because "WHY ELSE WOULD HIS CLEARANCE BE TAKING SO LONG"? Oh I don't know maybe because EVERY ******* INVESTIGATION IS TAKING SO LONG?

The Media has devolved into an obsessed tabloid looking for anything they can throw on the front page to take down Donald Trump. I used to call them pathetic but that doesn't do the word justice. They should disgust any real American.

 

[JGalt]

Yet one more instance of the left distorting the truth and creating a boogieman where there is none.

 

[Coyote]

DSS has an insane backlog of ongoing and new security investigations. 700,000 maybe even more now. That has been the case since Obama was still in office and is now taking longer since the need for cleared people continues to increase. But the Media willfully ignores that fact because it diminishes their juicy story that Jared Kushner MUST be shady because "WHY ELSE WOULD HIS CLEARANCE BE TAKING SO LONG"? Oh I don't know maybe because EVERY ******* INVESTIGATION IS TAKING SO LONG?

The Media has devolved into an obsessed tabloid looking for anything they can throw on the front page to take down Donald Trump. I used to call them pathetic but that doesn't do the word justice. They should disgust any real American.

I strongly suspect that the security clearance system is not based on first come first served, and that those working closest to the president would be fast tracked to the front of the line.

For example, in the case of Porter - the FBI had completed it, informed the White House that there were problems, and it was up to the White House to make a decision.

In the case of Kushner, similar problems - not just a "back log":

White House Told Kushner’s Security Clearance Will Be Delayed
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department informed the White House this month that there were substantial issues related to Jared Kushner that still needed to be investigated and would significantly delay a recommendation on whether he should receive a permanent security clearance, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The White House was not told what the issues were involving Mr. Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser. But the notification led White House lawyers and aides to believe that they were more problematic than the complexity of his finances and his initial failure to disclose contacts with foreign leaders — the reasons Mr. Kushner’s lawyers have said are holding up the process, the two people said.

 

[Tijn Von Ingersleben]

I can personally attest to this.

 

[usmbguest5318]

DSS has an insane backlog of ongoing and new security investigations. 700,000 maybe even more now. That has been the case since Obama was still in office and is now taking longer since the need for cleared people continues to increase. But the Media willfully ignores that fact because it diminishes their juicy story that Jared Kushner MUST be shady because "WHY ELSE WOULD HIS CLEARANCE BE TAKING SO LONG"? Oh I don't know maybe because EVERY ******* INVESTIGATION IS TAKING SO LONG?

The Media has devolved into an obsessed tabloid looking for anything they can throw on the front page to take down Donald Trump. I used to call them pathetic but that doesn't do the word justice. They should disgust any real American.

juicy story that Jared Kushner MUST be shady because "WHY ELSE WOULD HIS CLEARANCE BE TAKING SO LONG"?

Backlog or not, just how long does it on average take? Not a whole year or more.

​

Clearance Processing for DoD and Associated Industry Personnel

Under the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA), the timeline for processing the initial Top Secret and Secret security clearance applications at the federal level was on average 60 days, with another 10 to 12 days for submission. At that time, the actual number of days creating the average ranged from 30 to 180 days. The remaining 10% of the applications took from 6 months to a year.

While most federal agencies, and especially the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that process 95% of all background investigations for civilian, military and contract employment, were meeting the target deadlines by 2010, it didn’t last long. National security leaks and issues with contract investigations starting in 2013 extended total processing times, thus causing a backlog that continued to snowball and one that exists even yet today.

As an example, in the chart below are the processing times for the DoD’s FY 17 2nd Quarter by security clearance level for the three steps: application, investigation and adjudication, along with reinvestigations.

​

Comparison of Clearance Durations -- 2016/-17

Assuming Kushner is, like most folks, but apparently not folks associated with Trump Organization and Donald Trump and apparently not like too many folks associated with the Trump WH, a basically law abiding citizen who (1) is bereft of associations with foreigners who may be closely connected to adversarial governments and (2) completely, accurately and the first time round discloses all of their foreign interactions and associations, there is no reason for Kushner's clearance to, well over 365 days hence, be unfinished and unapproved/unrecommended by the FBI.


It's not about "juicy" stories. It's about the fact that Kusher has factors in his background that call into question his fitness for receiving a top secret security clearance, yet he holds a position that calls for one.


EDIT:

Insofar as there are many unfilled key positions in the federal government under Trump, if anything, it should take less time for key appointees to obtain their security clearance. It's also worth noting that in prior Administrations, appointees who didn't timely obtain clearance were dismissed or resigned of their own volition so as not to have to say they were fired.

• WH dismisses six staffers for failing background checks: report
  
• Rod Rosenstein Told the White House That Jared Kushner Would Not Be Getting Clearance Soon
  
• More than 130 executive employees lacked full security clearances as of November, including ... Don McGahn?

That such individuals leave the WH isn't unique to the Trump Administration. What is unique is that Kushner has't received his clearance and he's still holding a very high level WH position a year-plus after applying for it.​

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Security clearances are tricky. I once had difficulty because my next door neighbor was an Israeli Air Force officer. He was attending a US Air Force foreign officer's course along with several of his fellow countrymen. They had a celebration for Israeli Independence Day and they invited numerous local Air Force and Navy officers to attend a ceremony on the Air Force base, so I was invited.

When it came time for renewing my background investigation, you would have thought from the questioning that we were gay lovers or something! I sat through hours of questions.

This officer was the pilot who flew all of the solo flights in the F-16 for the movie Iron Eagle. We watched that horrid movie together and laughed at it throughout!

 

[Darkwind]

Security clearances are tricky. I once had difficulty because my next door neighbor was an Israeli Air Force officer. He was attending a US Air Force foreign officer's course along with several of his fellow countrymen. They had a celebration for Israeli Independence Day and they invited numerous local Air Force and Navy officers to attend a ceremony on the Air Force base, so I was invited.

When it came time for renewing my background investigation, you would have thought from the questioning that we were gay lovers or something! I sat through hours of questions.

This officer was the pilot who flew all of the solo flights in the F-16 for the movie Iron Eagle. We watched that horrid movie together and laughed at it throughout!

A horrid movie?

You liked it that much!