Why do certain former intel people get to keep their security clearances? Unless the government has some intention of utilizing their expertise on a contract or ad hoc basis after they leave government service, I don't see the point. And, in the case involving the people mentioned in the linked article, the possession of clearances doesn't seem to have served any purpose other than to give credence to a lie that was used to influence the 2020 presidential election.
In any event, good move by Trump: "Trump Moves to Suspend Intel Clearances".
Update Maybe this is "more revolutionary than you think".
Just guessing here, but they may have been allowed to keep their clearances because they are consulted from time to time, either as rehired annuitants, or as contractors.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bad practice, though. My agency embraced the rehired annuitants program to the point that a bunch of retirees were effectively setting policy and strategy for the function that I worked in.
Said people had been brought back as rehired annuitants (a very nice gig, in fact), and "mentored" current employees. Some of those retirees had gone out the door under very questionable circumstances.
Interesting. That's another potential problem I hadn't thought of: the ability of "hired guns" to actually set policy.
DeleteIt's the "Good Ol' Boy Network" in action. Exchange of favors, favors owed, tribalism, loyalty to an individual, cronyism.
DeleteYou name it, it's there. I was constantly butting my head against those creeps.
Getting a security clearance costs a lot, folks keep theirs so they can move from job to job without the new employer having to spend $10k to do your background check.
ReplyDeleteNot quite. A security clearance isn't deleted from the system when you leave a position or employment, it's placed on inactive. It gets updated when you move into another job somewhere.
DeleteBackground checks then need only be focused on recent years, and not digging back several decades.
IIRC, it's the same for revoked clearances, only the file gets a big red flag, whereas the inactive file just sits there.
I worked with a rehired annuitant back in the day, it's not as sweet as it seems, the rehired annuitant doesn't make retired pay plus current job pay, but makes current job pay minus retired pay so that they're not getting a windfall.
ReplyDeleteOne of my old bosses went for the trifecta, retired military pay plus retired civilian pay plus consulting company executive pay.
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, that rule was changed to make up for all of the federal employees deploying as reservists. After that, the rehired annuitant did make retired pay plus current job pay -- quite a windfall.
DeleteUsually they were part time, and were expected to mentor younger employees. That didn't always happen, though.
tom
ReplyDeleteoops, I wanted that for my name, then I tried with my name and go an error message, anyway, I remember some rule change like that to lure the old codgers back to fix Y2K issues with old computer code, but I thought it was a temporary thing.
DeleteNow i remember, noththing lives longer than a temporary government fix.