WASHINGTON, May 11 (UPI) -- Congress is considering a measure to relieve the backlog on contractor security for U.S. defense projects.
The U.S. House of Representatives will consider an amendment to the fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill that would bar the Department of Defense from revoking security clearances of contractors whose renewal applications have been stalled because of a Pentagon agency's money woes, CongressDaily reported Wednesday.
The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., could shield thousands of contractors at secure sites around the country -- and perhaps hundreds at General Dynamics' Electric Boat operation in Simmons' eastern Connecticut district -- from potential layoffs, the congressman said Tuesday.
His language was among 93 amendments to the $512.9 billion defense authorization measure submitted to the House Rules Committee for consideration, CongressDaily said.
Citing lack of money, the Defense Security Service late last month stopped issuing security clearances for the swelling numbers of contractors doing classified work for the military, the report said.
The agency also stopped sending paperwork to the Office of Personnel Management, which handles background checks.
Since then, there has been a "massive breakdown in the system" that is "creating fear" of layoffs among many defense contractors, Simmons said.
Meanwhile, House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., and Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., submitted an amendment that would promote the three-star chief of the National Guard Bureau to a four-star general and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The language would also require the military to make the deputy commander at U.S. Northern Command a three-star Guard officer -- a move the sponsors hope will improve federal and state integration during homeland emergencies.
Senators Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., leaders of the Senate National Guard Caucus, introduced similar stand-alone legislation in the Senate earlier this year.
