How To Get A Facility Security Clearance

Discussion on how business entities and get security clearances. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

[inaudible].

Speaker 2: 0:15

Good evening and welcome to episode eight, another episode of DOD secure the podcast that talks about security clearances and protecting classified information under the national industrial security program operating manual. And we've had several different topics and many different guests that we've interviewed on our show. And tonight we are going to talk about um, facility security clearances. We'll have a series of broadcasts and interviews about the security clearance process and how to get a security clearance. I've been asked a lot of questions by a lot of people and I've heard um, a few myths about how the security clearance process have worked and I'll address some of those myths and questions throughout these next few series of security clearance. Um, podcasts. Again, we're going to go over the surface and I'll tell you as much information as I can, but if you'd like more detail, I'd appreciate it if you'd go over to Amazon or www.redbikepublishing.com and take a look at our book, the insider's guide to security clearances by Jeffrey W. Bennett. And as I understand it, then there will be an update and a written version. Currently it's available only on Kindle but sometime in 2020 the written version will come out and it will have checklists in it that you can apply to work towards getting the security clearance, but we are going to start with something called the facility security clearance and it is the initials F C L. S if you ever see that term or the initials. FCL just means facility security clearances. If you are an employee or an individual who is looking for information on how to get a security clearance, please come to our next few podcasts. The personnel security clearance or PCL is heavily tied in to the facility clearance. In most cases, cleared employees work for clear defense contractors and I'll go with those terms in a little bit, but the clear defense contractor typically is a business that is, that does work with the federal government as a contractor and they have their security clearance. Once they get their security clearance, they can hire cleared employees or put in their current employees for security clearances. So it usually works out that a company gets their security clearance and becomes a clear defense contractor prior to and then after that they get cleared employees. However, it is possible for an employee to be cleared by a company while being a consultant. In other words, a, they can hold a an employee security clearance or a consultants and security clearance at that time, but we'll talk more about that later. This podcast, we're going to address how a business entity can become a clear defense contractor. Now for a few definitions, the first one is a facility clearance and that is an administrative determination by the federal government and from a national industrial security program point of view that the government deems that the federal contractor or the business entity is eligible to access classified information. And that determination is coming by coming through an investigation and there are some steps that a business entity has to take to be to get their security clearance. People often ask me, Jeff, how do I get a security clearance? Or how can my business get a security clearance? My first response is market yourself. There's nothing you can do about getting a security clearance until somebody sees value in your product or your service. And what I mean by value is they need your product or service and they want to put you on contract already classified contract to be able to use your products or services. There are many jobs that require security clearance or services and some of those jobs include janitorial services, engineering services, secretarial, you name it. There are many opportunities out there to get a security clearance, but the first step is to be sponsored by a federal government entity, a government contracting agency or a another contract or defense contract. Unique can be, or your business entity can be their subcontractor. Once you've established a need, then you can be sponsored for a security clearance. A few years back, I was on a radio television radio talk show and um, I really didn't get to say too much because the talk show hosts went on and on about their surprise that the government allowed businesses to have security clearances and work on classified work and their opinion. There was no oversight and it was irresponsible to allow anybody other than a government entity to have classified information. I spoke as much as I could on it but, but I was shattered down and um, again there was no addressing the irrational thought there, but I just wanted to let you know that yes, civilian employees and civilian business entities can have a security clearance. And the way it works is the government contracting agency, which is a federal government agency could be, um, department of defense or department of energy. We'll have a contractual need to um, purchase services or products from contractors. But let's go back real quick. The, um, the government contracting agency is a designated original classification authority, which means they are capable of classifying information. It falls in certain categories. Now the president is the original classification authority. They are authorized to do this. The difference is the president of the United States does not go through a security clearance investigation process. By their position. They get to enjoy the benefits of having a security clearance so they can do their job as president. They delegate their OCA responsibility to the department of defense, department of energy, CIA, FBI, all these other government organizations. The government organizations are the ones who deem what is classified. Contractors or civilian organizations do not do that. They are what is called derivative classification authorities. They can only use and produce things that are already classified.

Speaker 3: 8:42

Right? If you want some more information on that, you can get in. Visit our website, www.redbikepublishing.com and get a copy of the national industrial security program operating manual or the NISPOM or get our book DOD security clearances and contracts guidebook, which explains in depth how security programs to protect classified information are run and how things are classified. Those are also available on amazon.com. Now, um,

Speaker 2: 9:18

there are ways for an entity to become, um, a clear defense contractor. You can do sponsorships you can team with with other government contractors.

Speaker 4: 9:37

Mmm.

Speaker 2: 9:39

I guess you can just use your imagination and understand what your services and your goods are. So other that the government or another contracting agency will want to use it and sponsor you for a clearance.

Speaker 4: 9:54

Yes.

Speaker 2: 9:57

So earlier I mentioned a word called sponsorship. Sponsorship is what needs to occur for a business entity to get a security clearance prior to sponsorship. The business entity should be a defense contractor and there are ways to do that. You just have to register as a defense contractor and get a cage code. Our book insider's guide to security clearance can tell you how to do that. But once you get sponsored, either through a joint venture or with a subcontractor or a clear defense contractor or a government entity, government contracting agency, then they will initiate the sponsorship. The way they do that is provide a justification and the, um, the government will provide a justification demonstrating a bonafide procurement requirement to access classified information. It has to be a contractual requirement. Now the government or another defense contractor, clear defense contractor can execute that. Justification. They're just saying, Hey, I like, um, the goods and services that company X provides. They are a defense contractor and now I want to give them a classified contract or award them a classified contract. So then they sponsor the, the entity to get their clearance. And the sponsorship is a trigger for an investigation that the business entity goes through to get their clearance. Now once the justification is written, the government entity and the government entity only that for example, a GCA is I spoke about earlier, could be department of defense. Then department of the army and a program in that works for the department of the army may have a need for product or service and they can write a justification for the contractor. Um, they will also write the um, authorization in another case where a contractor wants to subcontract their work, then they'll write the justification demonstrating the procurement need. But they will have to get from their government contracting agency, from the government, a written authorization to use that subcontractor and to sponsor them for security clearance. And then, um, additionally, what's needed is a statement of work or a performance work statement and it's highly recommended that um, the contractor, clear defense contractor or government contracting agency write specific requirements in there so that there is no doubt that the defense contractor that needs a security clearance will be awarded that or has a definite need for that security clearance. But so primarily what do you need to do to have your business entity cleared for or cleared or possess or gain access to classified information once sell your services and your goods, that's what you do that triggers it. Other than that, the government and the contractor who will sponsor you takes all the action. The thing that you can do once they take action is get all of your business paperwork in order and prepare to submit for your clearance because there are some things that's going to happen once a sponsorship packet comes through. Um, some of these things that happen is the government will send the justification and the authorization up to defense counterintelligence insecurity agency or D C S a and D CSA will start the process and then they'll receive a package and then they'll contact the um, defense contractor who, who will be getting security clearance and they'll discuss a survey and ask them questions on the phone. And later on that month, um, the D C S a will send an agent to review the package and review the organization's paperwork and then there'll be some more paperwork be filled out. But if everything goes well, um, within a few months, the organization should be able to establish a security clearance. Now there are a few factors that are under the um, business entities control and that they need to have, um, key personnel get their security clearances is again, we talked about them. Those are PCL personnel clearances. They have key management personnel, people who make decisions for that business. They will need to have a security clearance at the facility level because they influence the business and therefore they will be able to influence the security clearance or classification decisions. So they will need a clearance so they will know. So they will be capable of doing that. And also the business has to demonstrate that they are not under foreign ownership, controlling or controlling influence. They will have to demonstrate that if it is foreign owned, that the foreign entity does not have influence over that businesses ability to execute classified contracts because the business cannot be at risk for releasing classified information in an unauthorized manner. Um, so there are some tips that we can give you. Um, one is that, um, you know, if there is a joint venture that the cleared contractors can process individual consultants for PCL, but not if a facility clearance when the consultant and immediate family members are the sole owners and only the consultant requires access to classified information. In other words, you know, if we spoke about this earlier, if somebody wants to be a consultant, they can be brought in to an already cleared facilities. Um, classification and not have to have their own facility clearance. They just get bring their personal clearances over and they are managed by that organization. Now, people have often asked me how much does a security clearance cost? I've heard people say before that they pay for a security clearance, but I really don't believe it. It may happen, I'm not going to say it doesn't happen, but this is a government process that is conducted by government employees and paid for by tax payers. The government funds the processing of the facility clearances and the personnel clearances. The government determines if they need, if they're eligible to access classified information, so they put their own resources and their own investigators into it and their own edge judicators into it. The only cost is through the process is to ensure that the business is in compliance with the national industrial security program operating manual. Can your protect classified information? Those may be some additional costs that a business entity will have to consider. You will purchase your own security containers or saves. They're actually called G S a approved security containers if necessary, if necessary. You may have to purchase your own alarms, build your own vault. So or um, build protective measures to protect classified information that may be some costs that you will have to consider. And, and we can talk more about those one day. You can leverage your business, establish a relationship with other people. You may have, um, friends and organizations that already have a security clearance that can assist you and may need what you may need, what you can offer them. So, and to conclude, um, we've talked about security clearance process, mostly the facility clearance. Um, again, if you want or your entity desires or you're a business owner and you desire to have a security clearance when you had to have a good or service that is in need to, you can join a venture, take advantage of your small business status, join other clear defense contractors and be brought in as a subcontractor. Or you can contact the government directly and bid on con classified contracts that they are offering. You do not, and I'll repeat it, you do not need a security clearance to bid on classified contracts. Now, once you do and once you win a classified contract or somebody is going to award you business or partner with you in business, you will need to be sponsored. The sponsor can be a government agency or another clear defense contractor. That sponsor will initiate paperwork starting with justification and you will need authorizations from the next level. Government organization. Again, those are handled by other people, not your responsibility, but you can't assist in writing those justifications and then once you're in the system, your business will undergo an investigation. We'll then look at your organizational paperwork and look at your key employees for ensuring that they get a security clearance. Now what happens once you get a clearance, your business entity will have to start preparing a plan to protect classified information and that plan will, if you are going to work on classic classified contracts within your organization will include how will you protect that classified information. You also need to designate an employee to be a facility security officer and that facility security officer will need the proper training. And then the next step is start hiring the employees that you will need to have security clearances. They can already have a clearance or they can be employees that you bring in and you give them a security clearance or I mean, sorry, you initiate your request for a security clearance. So if you have any more questions, um, please contact us@editoratredbikepublishing.com or go to our website, www.redbikepublishing.com and look at our books and training. We have trained that FSOs can use. It'd be perfect for new FSOs

Speaker 3: 21:42

and consider supporting us on Patrion. We have a support link on whatever app that you're listening to this podcast on. Just press it and you're eligible or able to donate and we would appreciate it. Thank you again for joining us for another podcast. We look forward to getting our next one out that talks about the personnel security clearances and if you've heard any myths or have any questions that you'd like for us to address some personnel clearances. We're going to do that in the next couple of weeks. Please email@usateditoratredbikepublishing.com and we will answer those questions.

Speaker 4: 22:31

[inaudible]

Speaker 3: 22:31

thank you for joining DOD, secure the podcast that talks about security clearances and protecting classified information at coins in this month. For more information, visit us@vodsecuredotcomoremailusateditoratredbikepublishing.com we would again like to thank our sponsors, security clearance defense lawyer.com and security first and associates@www.security first associates.com

Speaker 1: 23:45

[inaudible].