IC Workforce & Organization — 2026-09-07

Defense Contractors Press DCSA for Transparency on Continuous Vetting Alert Delays Affecting 948K Cleared Workers

BLUFDCSA's refusal to disclose alert-resolution metrics while managing nearly a million industry enrollees signals a triage backlog that will continue freezing contractor workforce mobility until transparency reforms are imposed.

At a September 2 National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee meeting, ManTech's LaToya Coleman pressed DCSA for data on how the agency resolves continuous vetting alerts, citing delays in getting cleared employees onto contracts 1. DCSA personnel security branch chief Tom Giancoli said roughly 948,000 industry employees are enrolled in continuous vetting, about 25% of total CV enrollees, and acknowledged the agency has struggled to contact individuals flagged by alerts 1. Coleman said open CV alerts can halt an employee's transition to a new position entirely and recommended DCSA notify facility security officers rather than clearance holders directly 1. DCSA did not release its own alert-resolution metrics, but the Energy Department reported nearly 121,000 enrollees and 502,385 alerts flagged in one quarter, while DHS reported over 500,000 alerts last quarter with a 13-day average adjudication and 92% rated low risk 1. ClearanceJobs reported DCSA officials cited rising initial-investigation demand since February as driving an uptick in Q3 investigative inventory despite overall processing gains 2.

Analysis
DCSA's refusal to publish its own alert-resolution metrics, even as DHS and Energy disclosed theirs, leaves contractors unable to plan personnel moves around continuous vetting delays that can freeze a cleared employee's transition indefinitely once a case opens, with Federal News Network as the sole primary account of the NISPPAC session and ClearanceJobs offering only narrower, secondary coverage of the same meeting's inventory figures. The scale disclosed, nearly a million industry enrollees and hundreds of thousands of quarterly alerts at just two other agencies, suggests DCSA is managing a triage backlog its public reporting doesn't reflect, though the gap may simply mean the agency is still building CV data collection rather than withholding figures already in hand. Coleman's push to route notifications through facility security officers rather than individuals stands as a workaround pending fixes DCSA has committed no timeline to deliver.

2 sources

Contractors want more data on continuous vetting clearance model - Federal News Network
How Long Does It Take to Process a Security Clearance? Q3 2026 FY Update - ClearanceJobs