Sen. Jon Tester, Montana Democrat, said that the system to investigate and award security clearances is broken — and he’s on a short timeline to fix it.
“Hopefully we’ll get it fixed next week,” Mr. Tester said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve got to have 20/20 foresight on this, so when people get the security clearances … they’re actually worthy of getting the clearances.”
He said that too much of the background investigations is being done behind closed doors and that shedding some light and oversight on the process may help ensure people like Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis don’t have access to military installations.
“If what I’ve heard is true that his security clearance wasn’t at least checked into, then we’ve got problems,” Mr. Tester said. “It really does show you that things aren’t working the way they’re supposed to be working.”
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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