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QUANTICO, Va. – “DCSA (Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency) has the opportunity to do something really, really special in the federal government.”
Over the course of an hour, Matthew Eanes – Director of the Performance Accountability Council’s Program Management Office (PAC PMO) – amplified this statement about the possibilities that no other agency, command or organization in the Department of Defense or federal government are positioned to accomplish.
He responded to multiple questions related to Trusted Workforce 2.0 and National Background Investigative Services (NBIS) posed by DCSA Employee Council member Caitlin Lerch who moderated the third DCSA fireside chat as employees attended in person and virtually on June 22.
Eanes – who was first asked to share information about the PAC PMO and its mission –explained that the PAC is responsible to the president for reforming personnel vetting, adding that it formed in 2014 to support the PAC’s 14 members. The PAC principals comprise the Office of Management and Budget’s deputy director for management serving as chair; the director of national intelligence as the security executive agent; the Office of Personnel Management director as the suitability and credentialing executive agent; and the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security.
At one point, Lerch inquired: What are you most excited about in regards to the development and implementation of NBIS - this new system of systems and what advice would you give to those who may feel some anxiety regarding the technical processes and lexicon changes this will result in?
“I am most excited about all the future possibilities that NBIS is going to unlock,” said Eanes.
The NBIS automated record checks, event-triggered activities and analysis of agency-specific information enables the Trusted Workforce 2.0 reform effort’s transformation of the personnel vetting process that fully replaced periodic reinvestigations with continuous vetting of 4.4 million military, government and cleared contractor personnel.
“We changed the entire process in less than two years from a model of periodic reinvestigations that’s been in place for close to 70 years,” said Eanes regarding the changes to how the government establishes and maintains trust in the workforce with a continuous risk assessment model empowered by NBIS. “The model and the way we’re maintaining trust in the workforce – the entire bubble – is transformed and most of that work was done by DCSA,” Eanes emphasized. “Reciprocity didn’t break. Access didn’t break. Programs didn’t break. Hiring didn’t break. None of those things our new model supports, broke. The agile process allows us to do that because we quickly issued policy guidance, the implementation guidance and the reciprocity guidance.”
Eanes credited DCSA – specifically, the NBIS and Vetting Risk Operations teams – for rapidly making technology adjustments and policy adjustments.
“However, it comes with the cost of ambiguity and concern and that’s really hard,” he reflected in regards to DCSA’s significant and complex role as the federal government’s largest Investigative Service Provider on implementing a full gamut of services on behalf of the federal government. “Change brings anxiety. There will be places where we push forward and there will be places where we take one or two steps back. Fear, uncertainty and doubt are normal human behaviors. My advice is to have conversations with your workforce to figure out where these exist and help work through them. We’re all on the same U.S. government team.”
Likewise, Eanes and his PAC PMO team continuously conferred with DCSA, advising the agency on Trusted Workforce 2.0 plans and policies. He explained that part of PAC PMO’s role is to help identify potential friction points and seek ways to minimize the pain.
Eanes told the audience that Trusted Workforce 2.0 implementation was organized into two phases. Phase one reduced a sizeable background investigation inventory and improved timeliness of investigations. Once the investigation inventory stabilized, phase two focused on transforming personnel vetting across the enterprise.
Phase 2a established a new vetting framework to focus on managing risk, streamlining processes and producing effective, efficient and equitable outcomes. This framework enabled on-going development of new policies and informed phases 2b and 2c.
Phase 2b focused on implementing Trusted Workforce 2.0 transitional states known as Trusted Workforce 1.25 and Trusted Workforce 1.5. These transitional states advanced reform and improved risk management as the new suite of Trusted Workforce 2.0 policies were under development.
In phase 2c, the interim state transitioned to the new framework for the entire federal workforce. The new framework required finalizing the new Trusted Workforce 2.0 suite of policies to create one aligned model. Phase 2c also implemented three investigative tiers while incorporating five vetting scenarios. This effort to put the new Trusted Workforce 2.0 future state in place required changes across all aspects of the personnel vetting enterprise.
Consequently, the phase 2 policy framework aligned the personnel vetting domains – national security, suitability and fitness, and credentialing.
Eanes also discussed how the three investigative tiers to be implemented in phase 2c will decrease processing times, reduce duplication and complexity, and improve mobility. The scope of phase 2c includes finalizing the new Trusted Workforce 2.0 suite of policies to create one aligned model, implementing the three investigative tiers, and implementing the five vetting scenarios – initial vetting, continuous vetting, upgrades, transfer of trust, and re-establishment of trust.
The transition that reduced five investigative tiers to three new investigative tiers will result in a high tier (formerly tiers 4 and 5) covering high risk-public trust, top secret clearances, and top secret clearances with sensitive compartmented information; a moderate tier (formerly tiers 2 and 3) that will include moderate risk-public trust and secret clearances; and low tier (formerly tier 1) covering non sensitive-low risk positions.
“Now, we are in phase 2c and beginning the transition into a future state,” said Eanes. “This is the establishment and transfer of trust that Dr. Mark Livingston (DCSA assistant director for Personnel Security) and Heather Green (DCSA assistant director for Vetting Risk Operations) are implementing. Much of it will come together in the next 18 to 24 months.”
“Phase 2c will probably wrap up in 2026-27 as we get the scenarios rolled out,” Eanes explained. “We will complete implementation over the next two and a half years and the continuing process improvement doesn’t stop there. One of the things that Trusted Workforce 2.0 is providing us is future permission to do things we can’t envision today.”
However, changes across all aspects of the personnel vetting enterprise are envisioned to make the new Trusted Workforce 2.0 future state a reality.
“We’ll have new capabilities in place that are going to unlock things that we can’t even think about right now and with today’s set of technologies and processes, we would never be able to do that,” said Eanes. “The building blocks are being put in place for 3.0 and 4.0 in the future and this continuous learning model is a baked in component of Trusted Workforce.”
One “baked in” ingredient affecting every policy in the Trusted Workforce 2.0 framework features an update schedule.
“What that means is that every policy must be updated periodically,” said Eanes. “Minimally the executive agents will review the policies no less frequently than every five years to ensure they are current and responsive to evolving threats, societal trends and changes to law or other changes in the security environment. The higher-level documents in the framework will get less frequent review and the lower-level documents with the tactical requirements will get more frequent review.”
This will help the personnel vetting model keep pace with evolving changes in technology, process, society, data standards and availability.
“It’s a self-learning model that forces the policy to change,” said Eanes. “Every year we will be reaffirming policies. We’ll see that there’s nothing to change here or say, ‘here’s the changes we’re making.’ It forces that change into the model, giving organizations like DCSA – who made a commitment to continuous learning and innovation – an opportunity and on ramps to influence and inform needed changes. Previously, there were limited opportunities to do that.”
| Date Taken: | 07.14.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 07.14.2023 08:25 |
| Story ID: | 449197 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 678 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, PAC PMO Director Talks Trusted Workforce 2.0 at DCSA Fireside Chat, by John Joyce, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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