Background investigation personnel set to officially shift from OPM to DOD in late September

Federal employees at the National Background Investigation Bureau were notified today their office will be realigned from the Office of Personnel and Management to the Defense Department's Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency on Sept. 29.

There will be no reduction of force as a result of the transfer, and all NBIB employees will retain their current duty stations, grades and benefits.

Charles Phalen, acting chief of DCSA and director of NBIB, said the Trump administration has been working on the transfer for the past 15 months.

"We have taken the next steps in this merger by formally notifying our workforce of the upcoming changes to ensure a smooth transfer and transition," he said in a statement.

Senior administration officials who briefed reporters on background at the Pentagon today said they are seeking to "do no harm" to NBIB's security vetting backlog.

"If we do this right, the transfer will have no impact on the backlog," one official said. "If we do it wrong, they will be screaming at us."

In July, DOD announced the background investigations backlog, which peaked at 725,000 cases in April 2018, was down to 386,000.

"And it's still heading south," Phalen said at the time.