Sec. 973. Enhanced security programs for Department of Defense personnel and innovation initiatives
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The Secretary of Defense shall take such actions as may be necessary for the Defense Security Service to conduct, before October 1, 2017, background investigations for personnel of the Department of Defense whose investigations are adjudicated by the Consolidated Adjudication Facility of the Department. Not later than October 1, 2017, the Secretary and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall develop and carry out a plan to transfer Government investigative personnel and contracted resources to the Department in proportion to the background and security investigative workload to be assumed by the Department.
Not later than August 15, 2016, the Secretary shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report on the number of full-time equivalent employees of the management headquarters of the Department that will be required by the Defense Security Service to carry out this section. In order to enable detection and mitigation of potential insider threats, the Secretary shall ensure that insider threat programs of the Department of Defense collect, store, and retain information from the following:
Personnel security. Physical security. Information security. Law enforcement. Counterintelligence. User activity monitoring. Information assurance. Such other data sources as the Secretary considers necessary and appropriate. Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a personnel security program, and take such other actions as the Secretary deems appropriate, to support the Innovation Initiative of the Department to better leverage commercial technology.
In establishing the program required by paragraph (1), the Secretary shall develop policies and procedures to rapidly and inexpensively investigate and adjudicate security clearances for personnel from commercial companies with innovative technologies and solutions to enable such companies to receive relevant threat reporting and to propose solutions for a broader set of Department requirements. The Secretary shall ensure that access to classified information under the program required by paragraph
(1)is not contingent on a company already being under contract with the Department. The Secretary may award secret clearances under the program required by paragraph
(1)for limited purposes and periods relating to the acquisition or modification of capabilities and services. Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall coordinate with the Security Executive Agent, in consultation with the Suitability Executive Agent, to issue an updated reciprocity directive that accounts for security policy changes associated with new position designation regulations under section 1400 of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, new continuous evaluation policies, and new Federal investigative standards. The Secretary of Defense, working with the Security Executive Agent and the Suitability Executive Agent, shall jointly develop and issue directives on— completing the implementation of the National Security Sensitive Position designations required by section 1400 of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations; and aligning to the maximum practical extent the investigative and adjudicative standards and criteria for positions requiring access to classified information and national security sensitive positions not requiring access to classified information to ensure effective and efficient reciprocity and consistent designation of like-positions across the Federal Government. In this section, the term insider threat means, with respect to the Department, a threat presented by a person who— has, or once had, authorized access to information, a facility, a network, a person, or a resource of the Department; and wittingly, or unwittingly, commits— an act in contravention of law or policy that resulted in, or might result in, harm through the loss or degradation of government or company information, resources, or capabilities; or a destructive act, which may include physical harm to another in the workplace.