mr. prioletti thank you for that update and we look forward to hearing from mr. lewis. >> good morning chairman carper ranking member coburn and distinguished members of the committee. i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to address the practices and procedures of the department of defense department of defense regarding secured a clearances facility access and background investigations. the undersecretary of defense for intelligence dr. michael vickers is the principle staff assistant to the secretary and deputy secretary for security matters. in this capacity.vickers exercises his authority as the senior official for dod's personal security program and has the primary responsibility for providing improving guidance oversight and development for policies and procedures governing the civilian military and industrial base personnel security programs within the dod. in order to address the department's personnel security policies i believe it's important to identify the level policy framework. executive order 13467 designates the director of nati

mr. lewis. -- prioletti and mr. lewis. according to some news reports, the company that hired alexis, a company called the experts, had phoned his hotel room in rhode island in august saying he was unstable and that the company was bringing him home. according to news reports, the human resources director of question the experts talked to the mother of aaron alexis on august 9 and she informed the company of her son's past pair paranoid behavior and stated he probably needed therapy. i would ask first of all if the company had hired alexis had become aware of the increasingly troubled behavior, do you think the contractor should have a duty to report the behavior to the department of defense? and did they report it? >> senator, in this particular case that you just described, in terms of a national security perspective, it behaves everyone -- it behooves anyone to report any unusual activity they see, whether it be a colleague, a co- worker or a subordinate that works for you. >> and the second half of my question was, did

mr. prioletti proceeds. thanks for joining u >> good morning chairman carper, ranking member coburn, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. thank you for the invitation to provide information on the government's practices and procedures regarding security clearances and background investigations. the role of the director of national intelligence, known as the d.n.i., as a secured executive agent, his authorities and responsibilities for oversight of the security clearance process across the government and areas in need of attention in the current process and initiatives under way to address those areas. before i follow, i would like to make the comment that we also add our deepens condolences to the family members for their loss, and our commitment to work towards continuing to improve the security processes and access capabilities of the united states government. pursuant to executive order 13467, the d.n.i., is responsible for the development and oversight of effective, efficient, uniform policies

mr. prioletti, please proceed. again, thanks for joining us. >> good morning, chairman carper, ranking member coburn, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. thank you for the invitation to provide information on the government's practices and procedures regarding security clearances and background investigations. my statement will address the role of the director of national intelligence, known as the d.n.i., as a secured executive agent, his authorities and responsibilities for oversight of the security clearance process across the government and areas in need of attention in the current process and initiatives under way to address those areas. before i follow, i would like to make the comment that we also add our deepens condolences to the family members for their loss, and our commitment to work towards continuing to improve the security processes and access capabilities of the united states government. pursuant to executive order 13467, the d.n.i. is responsible for the development and oversight of effe

prioletti to mr. and the intel side, i want to hear what you're doing, too. we don't have time but i hope you get back in writing what you're doing. we're talking about d.o.d. here. finally, i hope g.a.o. can help us on this to establish some metrics, let's come up with a timeline that makes sense. if you're looking for additional resources, let us know. if it's going to take another 10 years, because we're doing more pilots and more research and so on, that is unacceptable. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator. senator coburn and then i'll wrap it up. >> mr. jordan, can you explain to me the difference in the fieldwork contract and the supply services contract you have with uscis? one. wo, are contractors -- are these contractors from the same company? >> i can answer the first part. yes, contractors perform background investigations, yes, contractors can perform quality reviews on those investigations but only government employees make a determination as to whether to grant security clearance to someone. >> but my question is, is it the same compa

mr. prioletti to the assistant director position as last may, after more than three decades in the cia. he testified before the full committee on security clearance issues last month, and i want to thank you for your service, trying, and want to thank you for joining us again today. tim curry is a deputy associate director for partnership and labor relations in the office of personnel management. he's responsible for opm's efforts to design and promulgate governmentwide programs for labor and employee relations. prior to his current position, he served as executive director of the labor management and employees relations at the department of defense. tim, thank you for being here. and getting to the traffic to get it. brenda farrell is the director of defense capabilities at the management team of the government accounting office, a post she has held since 2007. choose possible for gao oversight, and military and civilian personnel issues and has worked extensively on the personal security class program. she testified before the subcommittee in june about the of clearly defined policy a

mr. prioletti, we appreciate you being here today because you probably have the most expertise on the national security side to be able to talk about this. do you think we are classifying too much, too little? and tell us what goes into the decision-making process for something to be labeled as classified or sensitive. >> thank you, senator. i i think what we do is classify what we feel is necessary at the time. i don't think we are in the position to say we over classified or not. the volume, as you mentioned, is epic. there are guidelines that are set specifically to determine what information needs to be et ofified, and that s guidelines is used to determine when information goes under a classification or non- classification status. and i think we are using those as judiciously as possible. the pace of business and the theging threats in environment we are working in this acetate that we look at information on a daily basis and make the determination using the guidelines i referred to. tools we arenew talking about, the new regulations and so on, is for determining whether somebody has a po