Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) and Jon Tester (D-Montana) have asked the Office of Personnel Management to provide information on how it will set up a new bureau that would oversee background investigations, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Eric Yoder writes the lawmakers told Beth Cobert, acting OPM director, in a letter that they want OPM to provide a timeline for the establishment of the National Background Investigations Bureau that would replace the Federal Investigative Services branch.
The move to replace FIS resulted from an internal assessment following breaches at OPM in 2015 that compromised the personal data of approximately 21 million former and current federal employees, Yoder reports.
McCaskill and Tester also requested updates on information technology systems for the new bureau, approaches to address background investigation backlog, changes to investigative policies, federal contractors and employees as well as annual operating costs, according to the newspaper.
The lawmakers “want to ensure that the NBIB will not simply be a new name for the FIS,†according to the letter.
“It is critical that you make significant structural changes to improve the integrity, management and oversight of the security clearance process,†the senators wrote.
