Post Porter row, White House overhauls ‘clearance process’

Bloomberg

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly ordered an overhaul of the clearance process for staffers in the West Wing amid a storm of controversy after former staff secretary Rob Porter was allowed to remain in his job for months after the White House was told of allegations of domestic abuse.
“We should—and in the future, must—do better,” Kelly writes in the five-page document, released by the White House, outlining his proposed changes to the clearance process.
Kelly’s proposals include formalizing communications among the White House, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies, all of which play a role in vetting potential West Wing employees. He also recommended limiting access to highly classified material for those operating on interim clearances, new limits on how long employees are allowed to operate under the temporary clearances, and asks the FBI to inform the White House within 48 hours of the discovery of significant derogatory information about senior presidential staff.
The chief of staff also proposed discontinuing top-level interim clearances for individuals whose security clearances have been pending since the beginning of June. That list may include White House senior adviser and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The announced changes came a day after the House Oversight Committee sent Kelly a letter asking for a list of White House employees who had requested security clearances, whether they had been granted, whether it was interim or permanent, and the classification level. Earlier this week, Dan Coats, the director of National intelligence, said he would recommend limiting access to classified documents for anyone who had not obtained a permanent clearance.
“It has to be a specific interim with controlled access and limited access, and that has to be clear right from the beginning,” Coats said in a congressional hearing. “You can’t just say an interim allows me to do anything.”
On Wednesday, NBC News and CNN reported at least 130 appointees working in the executive office of the president lacked permanent security clearances as recently as November. The Kelly memo on overhauling the clearance process was first reported by the Washington Post.