Political Quotes

“I thank the chair of the committee for yielding. Mr. Chair, I rise to strongly support the David Paul Nelson and Matthew Young Pollard Intelligence Authorization Act. In the last year we have made some pretty incredible progress in reducing the security clearance backlog, yet, frankly, after all the progress we have made, we are still--and you are hearing this number correctly--left with nearly a half a million people on the waiting list for security clearance. Earlier this year, the average wait time for top secret security clearance was reduced to 468 days, down from 534 days. So, in other words, when we are out there competing for young talent to come in and be a member of the intelligence community, say in a field such as cyber, we are told we have to tell them, ``Cool your jets. We will get back to you in a year, year and a half or so.'' Indeed, closer to home, my senior military adviser is a distinguished graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served not one, but two tours in Afghanistan, where he had a security clearance, and yet when he joined a staff in the House of Representatives, to again earn a security clearance, it took 20 months, nearly 2 years. We are losing good people when we subject them to that long of a wait time. This bill makes some progress. It will build on the progress we made this year by providing needed reform to this mission.…”