The United States is facing a national security crisis that few in Washington seem willing to acknowledge—the dwindling number of Americans eligible for and holding security clearances. This isn’t some hypothetical, down-the-road issue. It’s an active failure that is weakening military readiness, intelligence operations, and the defense industrial base. The national security workforce depends on a steady pipeline of cleared professionals—cybersecurity experts, engineers, intelligence officers—yet that pipeline is clogged with bureaucratic inefficiencies. Instead of addressing the backlog, Washington has allowed the process to grind to a halt, ensuring that the people needed to protect the country spend more time waiting for clearances than actually doing their jobs.
The numbers make the failure undeniable. Nearly 300,000 cases are currently backlogged, a surge from recent lows and approaching the 725,000-case disaster of 2018. Getting a Top Secret clearance now takes 249 days, while a Secret clearance takes 138 days. A decade ago, 90% of cases were processed in under 60 days. Now, agencies act as if a nine-month clearance process is just part of doing business rather than a national security liability.
The consequences are immediate. The CIA and NSA rely on cleared personnel to monitor emerging threats, but fewer intelligence officers mean fewer eyes on foreign cyberattacks, terrorist movements, and adversarial military buildups. The defense industrial base needs engineers, analysts, and experts on ballistic missile defense, yet hiring bottlenecks are delaying classified programs that can’t afford delays. The cyber threats from China, Russia, and Iran don’t pause while federal HR figures out its paperwork. The U.S. military’s ability to deploy intelligence officers, nuclear command personnel, and special operations teams is being directly impacted by a clearance system that isn’t keeping pace with today’s security environment.
This is especially alarming as the U.S. shifts focus to countering China’s rise. The Pentagon is pouring billions into modernizing its military posture for a potential Pacific conflict, investing in next-generation missile systems, cyberwarfare capabilities, space assets, and AI-driven battlefield technology. Every one of these efforts depends on a workforce that is bogged down in clearance purgatory. The Chinese military, which faces no such bureaucratic hurdles, is moving ahead while America is still waiting for background checks to clear.
Meanwhile, the demand for cleared personnel is outpacing supply. In Washington, D.C., 9% of all job postings require a clearance, particularly in high-tech and intelligence fields. Nationally, there are 70,000 more open cleared positions than there are cleared candidates, forcing defense contractors, intelligence agencies, and the military to compete for a workforce that is being held up by bureaucratic inertia. And even when someone does apply, they often walk away rather than wait eight months or more in limbo. National security should not be losing talent because the hiring process is stuck in the past.
The nature of national security work is also changing, and the clearance system has failed to adapt. Many of the fastest-growing defense-related jobs—in cyber, AI, quantum computing, and electronic warfare—aren’t filled by people with traditional military or government backgrounds. The cybersecurity world, for example, is dominated by people who don’t fit the “clean-cut, no-mistakes” mold the security clearance process still demands. The best cyber operators and software engineers aren’t lifelong government workers; they’re industry veterans, startup founders, and hackers who don’t have spotless personal histories but are among the most capable at what they do. Yet the clearance system continues to disqualify highly capable individuals over minor financial issues, youthful drug use, or vague “foreign influence” concerns that fail to account for how the private-sector workforce operates.
The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA), which handles 95% of federal clearance investigations, has expanded its hiring efforts—adding investigators, authorizing a 70% spike in overtime, and even allowing virtual interviews to speed things up. But it’s not enough. The National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) platform, meant to modernize clearance processing, is now 8.5 years behind schedule. A system that was supposed to be finished in three years is still unfinished nearly a decade later. Until this is fully operational, clearance processing will remain a roadblock, delaying the very workforce needed to protect the nation.
Even when the system does process cases, it isn’t prioritizing security risks effectively. Over 4 million Americans currently hold a clearance, with 2.9 million actively using them, but adjudication trends raise serious questions. Nearly 30% of denials now stem from financial reasons, overtaking criminal conduct and drug use. Clearance denials increasingly reflect economic hardship rather than genuine security threats. Meanwhile, marijuana use remains a growing cause for disqualification, despite state-level legalization.
One of the biggest fixes is simple: eliminate unnecessary college degree requirements for national security roles and tap into the military NCO class. Many of the most skilled intelligence analysts, cyber operators, and logistics experts aren’t officers with four-year degrees—they’re career NCOs who spent decades mastering their craft. Yet countless security jobs continue to require degrees for no reason beyond outdated hiring policies. The defense sector should be aggressively recruiting experienced military personnel who already hold clearances and understand national security work, rather than shutting them out with unnecessary barriers.
This is not a difficult fix. Streamline clearances. Cut the backlog. Expand continuous vetting and implement real reciprocity. Remove degree requirements that make no sense and recruit from the talent pool that’s already trained and vetted. The intelligence failures, cyber breaches, and defense delays of the future won’t be caused by underfunding or a lack of talent—they’ll be the result of a system that refused to adapt.
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