Washington, Feb 25 : A broken US security-clearance pipeline is keeping Americaâ??s most sensitive jobs waiting â?? and Congress is now warning that the Pentagonâ??s flagship fix is years late, billions over budget, and still unable to deliver the modern system Washington promised after a massive data breach a decade ago.

At a hearing of the House Oversight subcommittee on Government Operations, lawmakers from both parties said the Department of Defenceâ??s National Background Investigative Services System, known as NBIS, has become a test of whether the US can protect secrets while hiring fast enough to compete in technology and national security.

â??If the topic of today's discussion sounds familiar, it should,â?? Chairman Congressman Pete Sessions said, recalling a June 2024 hearing where â??Congress raised serious concerns about persistent failures in personnel vettingâ??.

Sessions said NBIS was meant to be â??a one-stop shop for all phases of federal personnel vettingâ??, but â??today, NBIS has deployed only limited capacities and capabilitiesâ?? and is â??more than eight years behind schedule with completion delayed from 2019 to 2028â??.

He said delays have â??cost the American taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollarsâ?? and raised questions about â??the safety and reliability of all aspects of the federal personnel vetting systemâ??.

Ranking member Kweisi Mfume said the goal was â??straightforward, deliver a background check system that keeps the United States of America safeâ??, while also ensuring it â??gets qualified people to work without delayâ??.

â??America, in my opinion, cannot hope to maintain our technological advantage in the national security space if we make the best engineers, scientists, linguists, analysts, and others spend months. If not years, sometimes in limbo before they can serve,â?? Mfume said. â??And if we can't clear people, we can't complete our missions, it's very, very simple.â??

Mfume said the government has spent â??about $ 2.4 billion on NBIS and legacy sustainmentâ?? since 2017, and the department projects â??about another 2.2 billion is needed to finish the jobâ??. â??It's an enormous amount of money for the government to spend on anything and have so very, very little to show for it,â?? he said.

Justin Overbaugh, acting director of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, pushed back on earlier assurances that the agency was on track. â??Respectfully, that assessment was too optimistic,â?? he said.

â??The truth is DCSA has been an agency in the midst of an identity crisis,â?? Overbaugh said, arguing it was â??cobbled together from disparate programsâ?? and â??never, truly self-actualized or forged a unified cultureâ??. He said previous leadership drifted â??towards an intelligence-focused entity rather than embracing its vital security missionâ??.

Overbaugh called the delivery of Trusted Workforce 2.0 and NBIS â??non-negotiableâ?? and said recent progress was â??fragileâ??. He promised a shift from â??a sclerotic compliance-based bureaucracy to a customer-centric business-oriented entityâ??, and told lawmakers, â??My commitment to you is that I will continue to foster a culture of innovation and accountability.â??

Alissa Czyz of the Government Accountability Office said reform is â??urgently needed,â?? and the clearance process remains too slow. â??For example, it takes over 200 days to grant a top secret clearance,â?? she said. â??This is 80 % longer than the government's goal.â??

Czyz said DCSA now has â??a reliable cost estimate for NBIS for the first time everâ??, but warned that the schedule â??is still not reliable, putting NBIS at risk of further delaysâ??.

The US security-clearance system is central to Washingtonâ??s defence-industrial machine, which depends on cleared personnel across government and private contractors. After the 2015 breach, the federal government began shifting towards modernised vetting and continuous evaluation.

/IANS