Sponsors (2)
The bill increases transparency and data-driven oversight to improve fairness in security-clearance adjudications, at the cost of added administrative expense and risks to privacy and potentially national security if disclosures are not carefully limited.
Federal employees will get clearer information about adverse security-clearance decisions and appeals, enabling them to understand outcomes and identify inconsistent treatment.
Congressional oversight committees will receive detailed clearance data so they can evaluate whether adjudication processes are fair and effective and pursue policy fixes.
Disaggregated data by position, race/national origin/ethnicity, and gender will allow identification of demographic disparities and support corrective actions to reduce bias in security adjudications.
Detailed disclosure of adjudicative criteria and outcomes could reveal procedural vulnerabilities that adversaries might exploit, risking national-security-sensitive information.
Publishing demographic breakdowns of adverse adjudications could expose or stigmatize individuals (especially from small or protected groups) if privacy protections and redaction are insufficient.
Compiling and reporting detailed, disaggregated clearance data will increase administrative burden and costs for the State Department, with taxpayers ultimately bearing some expense.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires annual State Department reports to Congress on adverse security-clearance outcomes, appeals, decision criteria, and available demographic breakdowns.
Official title: To require the Secretary of State to report annually on adverse security clearance adjudications, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 25, 2025 by Ted Lieu · Last progress June 25, 2025
Requires the Secretary of State to send Congress an annual, public-facing report on adverse security-clearance adjudications handled by the Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security. The report must include counts of denial/termination outcomes, appeal counts and success rates, the criteria used for decisions, and breakdowns by employment type and available demographic data (race/ethnicity and gender); the first report is due within 90 days of enactment and covers Jan 1, 2024 through submission, then annually thereafter.