Why do ex-government employees have security clearances?

Question

The recent headlines regarding the current administration revocation of clearances, prompts the question. I would like to understand why this group of ex-government personnel (not the line-level personnel) has clearances and how the stakeholders benefit from sharing information.

I realize that this a politically charged topic and no inference should be drawn from the question. My work experience has brought me face to face with clearances: no explanation is necessary as to how they work. Please stay focused on the question.

Answer 1

Security clearances is something that qualifies you as an individual. It means that you have been evaluated and trusted to a determined security level.

If you are working at Company A and get a security clearance L1 and you stop working there, you do not lose the security clearance.

Of course, this does not mean that you can just appear at Company A and casually ask to see their sensitive files; since you no longer need to access that data to do your job you are not allowed access to the information.

If you then see a job offer at Company B that requires a L1 security clearance, then you can apply and "use" the same security clearance and use it to access to the information related to the new job.

You can repeat until the clearance is revoked.

This approach has several advantages:

• Once cleared, if you want to change jobs you know beforehand that you qualify for any job that requires your security clearance.

• The government avoids checking you again and again. Since the procedure seems rather complicated and slow, that helps a lot.

• In case a former employer needs to contact you for something related to your previous work, you are already cleared.

At the workplace site there are some questions about security clearances; this one gives more details.

Answer 2

Simply? Even if you aren't in the role anymore, you're still a resource to be tapped. Pompeo's background was in law and business, not intelligence, when he got the CIA job. So if the Trump presidency held to precedent, Pompeo would have had Brennan on speed-dial to answer questions and give advice when asked without Pompeo having to worry about whether or not Brennan was allowed to hear Pompeo's issue. The typical setup is to have the former director-of-whatever get a cushy job as a government contractor in part for providing this advice whenever needed.

Answer 3

One misconception about clearances (which I might be detecting here) is that they are all you need to look at all the classified data in existence. That's false. To look at a piece of classified info you not only need a clearance that matches the level of the information, but you must have a need to know that information.

When a government employee leaves their position, they would no longer have a need to know for the information they formerly had access to, so immediately taking away that clearance doesn't really prevent any access that wasn't already prevented.

Clearances are time-limited (usually 5 years IIRC), so they will eventually go away on their own without the government having to do anything special.

The benefit to not immediately taking a clearance away is that getting one is an expensive process. All the paperwork and investigations takes a lot of government time, and incurs no small expense to the employer sponsoring the clearance. Of course if the employer is doing government contracting (or is some branch of the government), that expense ultimately is shouldered by US taxpayers. So its in everybody's interest if someone who is between classified jobs for a couple of months doesn't have to then go through the same expensive process that returned positive for them last time all over again.

Answer 4

Security clearances can be thought of as a kind of industry licensure that must be periodically renewed, like a medical practice license for doctors, or a bar certification for lawyers. Many private employers doing government contract work require you to already possess one upon hiring, as they are very expensive to obtain and many are unwilling to shoulder that expense for new hires. Additionally, some clearance levels require you to have already been cleared at a lower level, so you need the ability to switch jobs at different clearance levels while allowing for the amount of time it takes to do all the background checks that happen as part of the process.

Two things that people need to realize about security clearances:

1. Although your clearance does not get revoked when your employment ends, they do expire eventually, and you can't renew your clearance if you don't work in a job that requires one. If you leave a government job to take a position in the private sector, you will have to start the process all over again if you want to take another government job in the future.
2. Having a security clearance does not automatically grant you access to sensitive information. You must still have "need to know", which is rigidly defined within your job role. So for example, if you have a Q clearance from the Department of Energy and are already working with classified information, that does not mean you can just walk into a SCIF at another DOE site without authorization. Need to know also forbids you from sharing classified information with other parties, even if they have a higher clearance level than you.

So in reality, if you're unemployed, having a security clearance doesn't get you anything. But it is something that you can put on a resume when looking for more work, because it makes you very attractive as a candidate for those kinds of positions.

Answer 5

Adding a bit to SJuan's answer, when you're granted a security clearance, it's valid for a certain number of years, regardless of whether it's being used or not. When you're not working at a job where clearance is required, your clearance will be inactive and you will not have access to classified information, but your clearance won't be revoked.

Having a security clearance, even if it is inactive, makes it much easier to start a new job that requires a clearance. Simply reactivating your existing clearance is a much less expensive and time-consuming process than getting a new one. It also makes you a less risky candidate to hire for a position requiring a clearance, as there's no question of whether or not you'll be qualified to get the level of clearance that's needed for the job.

Also, it makes accepting a new job that requires a clearance easier and less risky for you, as you don't have to go through the whole clearance application process again and you don't have to wait on your clearance to be approved before you can begin work.

Answer 6

A driver's license is a "clearance" that shows you have some minimum required skill level at driving.

You can get a driver's license by driving one car and use it to show you have the skill to drive a different car.

However, the fact that you used to be allowed to drive someone else's car does not mean you're allowed to drive my car, because I have no reason you should.

You can be licensed to drive some vehicles but not others, and permitted or barred from different classes of vehicle at different times in your life.

If you demonstrate somehow that you no longer meet the requirements for a license, for example by driving dangerously or repeatedly breaking traffic regulations, it is likely to be removed.

The same for security clearances.