Colleagues,
Please consider endorsing the letter below in support of the Jacobs
amendment<https://amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/JACOCA_033_xml211202115449942.pdf.>
(#12) to the Protecting Our Democracy Act. It would allow all Members who
serve on committees the authority to designate one personal office staffer as
eligible to apply for a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI)
clearance.
As increasingly more information is classified (whether warranted or not) at
the TS/SCI level, it is crucial that Members be enabled to have staff who have
clearance. Currently, personal office staff are not allowed such access.
The letter below explains the history, the current practices, and the need in
fuller detail.
Deadline is COB Monday.
Sign on here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1s9pzH__yLE52jRLkEIo28jX1aoctUOrNRvI0SgbZQwEGWQ/viewform
Any questions/comments should go to Daniel Schuman
daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Please share this with your networks. The Rules Committee vote is Tuesday.
Best,
Patrice
Government Information Watch<https://govinfowatch.net/>
pmcdermott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:pmcdermott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
@McD_Patrice
From: Daniel Schuman [mailto:daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2021 1:19 PM
To: Patrice McDermott
Subject: [Time sensitive] Endorse letter improving staff clearances for
personal offices
Please endorse the following letter in support of allowing nearly every
Representative to have a staffer with a TS/SCI clearance. Deadline is COB
Monday.
Sign on here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1s9pzH__yLE52jRLkEIo28jX1aoctUOrNRvI0SgbZQwEGWQ/viewform<https://demandprogress-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1cLmJch9svWvveGanBFAqc20NbMn2pXDnv3vQNolk9wQ-1570457652&key=YAMMID-1638555566061&link=https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1s9pzH__yLE52jRLkEIo28jX1aoctUOrNRvI0SgbZQwEGWQ/viewform>
The letter is below. It endorses a bipartisan
amendment<https://demandprogress-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1cLmJch9svWvveGanBFAqc20NbMn2pXDnv3vQNolk9wQ-1570457652&key=YAMMID-1638555566061&link=https://amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/JACOCA_033_xml211202115449942.pdf>
(#12) offered by Rep. Jacobs to the Protecting our Democracy
Act<https://demandprogress-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1cLmJch9svWvveGanBFAqc20NbMn2pXDnv3vQNolk9wQ-1570457652&key=YAMMID-1638555566061&link=https://rules.house.gov/bill/117/hr-5314>.
Feel encouraged to share this with your networks. The Rules Committee vote is
Tuesday.
Thanks!
Daniel
—————
Daniel Schuman
Demand Progress & Demand Progress Education Fund | Policy Director
daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> | @danielschuman |
240-237-3930
Interested in a stronger Congress? Subscribe to the weekly First Branch
Forecast<https://demandprogress-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1cLmJch9svWvveGanBFAqc20NbMn2pXDnv3vQNolk9wQ-1570457652&key=YAMMID-1638555566061&link=https://us10.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=473283de10f9c69c998b8e3cd&id=a80abc34d0>
December 6, 2021
Dear Chairman McGovern, Ranking Member Cole, and members of the House Committee
on Rules:
We write in strong support of the Jacobs amendment to the Protecting Our
Democracy Act, amendment #12, which would allow all members who serve on
committees the authority to designate one personal office staffer as eligible
to apply for a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI)
clearance. We urge you to determine the amendment is made in order and provide
for its consideration on the House floor.1
Congress routinely considers legislative measures and receives information that
the Executive branch deems classified. While members of Congress do not need
clearances by virtue of their offices, as a matter of accommodation the House
and Senate require staff to obtain clearances. Each member of the House is
allowed under House Rules to designate two personal office aides as eligible to
apply for a Top Secret clearance.
Over the decades, the Executive branch has increasingly classified large
amounts of information at the TS/SCI level, which personal office staff cannot
access. By comparison, hundreds of thousands of Executive branch employees,
including interns, hold TS/SCI clearances, with equivalent access for foreign
officials. Since the late 1970s, the House has only provided for committee and
leadership staff eligibility to apply for TS/SCI clearances — pursuant to an
informal agreement between then-Speaker O’Neill and the CIA director intended
to reduce the overall number of people in government with clearances — an
effort that was not upheld by the Executive branch.2
The de facto clearances policy undermined the ability of individual members of
Congress to hold the Executive branch to account and has made members unduly
reliant upon staff outside their offices. Ironically, some staff who perform
this work have TS/SCI clearances at the time they are hired, but are not
allowed to use their clearances for their congressional work.
This untenable situation prompted the Senate to recently change its practices.
Now every senator is empowered to designate one personal office staffer as
eligible to apply for a TS/SCI clearance.3 Staff still must complete the
Executive branch-administered clearance review process and, if they are
approved, can only access information if they can demonstrate a need-to-know.
However, senators now will have a single personal office staffer who reports
directly to them and will be allowed to attend high level briefings, review
Executive branch materials, enter classified facilities, and provide a second
set of eyes and ears during important conversations.4
The Jacobs amendment would provide for members of the House what is afforded to
members of the Senate: one personal office staffer eligible to apply for a
TS/SCI so long as the member serves on a committee. It would further provide
training for that staffer on the responsibilities associated with access,
including training in counterintelligence.
This policy change is long overdue. While legislation is not necessary to
address the practice of not providing members with staffers who can obtain a
TS/SCI clearance, in the absence of new procedures instituted by the Office of
House Security, the House of Representatives should have the opportunity to
vote on whether individual members should be provided the support they need for
the performance of their Constitutional duties as relates to classified
matters. We urge you to support the amendment.
Sincerely yours,
1. The amendment is available online at
https://amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/JACOCA_033_xml211202115449942.pdf<https://demandprogress-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1cLmJch9svWvveGanBFAqc20NbMn2pXDnv3vQNolk9wQ-1570457652&key=YAMMID-1638555566061&link=https://amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/JACOCA_033_xml211202115449942.pdf>.
2. See “A Primer on Congressional Staff Clearances: Which Staff Can Obtain
Security Clearances, at What Levels, and Who Decides?” Daniel Schuman and Mandy
Smithberger (February 2020),
https://docs.pogo.org/report/2020/A_Primer_on_Congressional_Staff_Clearances_2020-02-05.pdf<https://demandprogress-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1cLmJch9svWvveGanBFAqc20NbMn2pXDnv3vQNolk9wQ-1570457652&key=YAMMID-1638555566061&link=https://docs.pogo.org/report/2020/A_Primer_on_Congressional_Staff_Clearances_2020-02-05.pdf>.
For the correspondence between the Speaker and the CIA Director, see
https://s3.amazonaws.com/demandprogress/documents/1978_correspondence_on_clearances.pdf<https://demandprogress-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1cLmJch9svWvveGanBFAqc20NbMn2pXDnv3vQNolk9wQ-1570457652&key=YAMMID-1638555566061&link=https://s3.amazonaws.com/demandprogress/documents/1978_correspondence_on_clearances.pdf>
3. “Senate Personal Offices Now Allowed a Staffer With TS/SCI Clearance,”
First Branch Forecast (Nov. 16, 2021)
https://firstbranchforecast.com/2021/11/16/senate-personal-offices-now-allowed-a-staffer-with-ts-sci-clearance/<https://demandprogress-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1cLmJch9svWvveGanBFAqc20NbMn2pXDnv3vQNolk9wQ-1570457652&key=YAMMID-1638555566061&link=https://firstbranchforecast.com/2021/11/16/senate-personal-offices-now-allowed-a-staffer-with-ts-sci-clearance/>
4. A more in-depth discussion of the importance of expanding TS/SCI clearance
available can be found in the testimony of Mandy Smithberger before the House
Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee (March 2020)
https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110517/witnesses/HHRG-116-AP24-Wstate-SmithbergerM-20200304.pdf<https://demandprogress-dot-yamm-track.appspot.com/Redirect?ukey=1cLmJch9svWvveGanBFAqc20NbMn2pXDnv3vQNolk9wQ-1570457652&key=YAMMID-1638555566061&link=https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110517/witnesses/HHRG-116-AP24-Wstate-SmithbergerM-20200304.pdf>
