Three members of Congress are calling for a public hearing to look into both how security clearances are awarded and base security following Monday’s mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard that left 12 victims and the shooter dead.
Reps. Elijah Cummings, Maryland Democrat, Stephen Lynch, Massachusetts Democrat, and Gerald Connolly, Virginia Democrat, sent a letter on Wednesday to Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asking for the hearing.
“Monday’s tragic mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard raises a number of serious questions that Congress must address to restore confidence in the security measures that are intended to protect our nation’s dedicated federal workforce,” the letter said. “Congress owes it to the dedicated civil servants who were slain in the line of service to redouble its efforts to safeguard the dedicated men and women of our civil service.”
The letter asks experts specifically to examine the integrity of background checks for security clearances, lessons learned from the shooting that can be applied to all federal facilities, improvements to contractor oversight and how these issues can be addressed without getting in the way of day-to-day jobs and missions.
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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