Assessing the Potential for Racial Bias in the Security Clearance Process
Abstract
In the United States, there are more than 4 million people in the national security workforce - federal employees and private contractors performing work for the government - who either currently have a security clearance or are eligible for one (Kyzer, 2021). To obtain access to classified information, employees and contractors must be evaluated as trustworthy and eligible under the U.S. national security guidelines. The federal government conducts detailed background investigations of applicants for national security positions to determine whether they should hold these sensitive positions and are eligible to access classified national security information that could cause serious or exceptionally grave damage to the United States if divulged. This process assumes that each person carries some type of risk; thus, the purpose of these investigations is to determine whether that risk is great enough to warrant refusing such access and preventing that individual from holding a national security position. In this exploratory report, we consider the security clearance process through the lens of racial justice. Specifically, we scrutinize the security clearance process to identify areas where bias might create a barrier for Black Americans seeking positions or career advancement in U.S. departments and agencies with a national security mission. While prior studies related to personnel vetting have focused on improving the efficiency of the clearance process, there has been less attention given to the roles of race, systemic racism, and human judgment factors in the security clearance process - more specifically, the extent to which racial biases and historical disparities affect clearance decisions and may be contributing to underrepresentation of cleared personnel from racially minoritized backgrounds.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1152677
Entities
People
- Lisa P. Colabella
- Nahom M. Beyene
- Sina Beaghley
- Tepring Piquado
Organizations
- RAND Corporation