[Jarhead9297]

I stopped at “21.5 million federal employees “ how in the hell do we have that many!?

[markomalley]

I stopped at “21.5 million federal employees “ how in the hell do we have that many!?

Think about:

• Almost all military members have at least a SECRET clearance. How many military members have we cumulatively had in the past 20 years?
• Almost all federal employees have at least some variety of "public trust" determination, if not a security clearance. How many federal employees, cumulatively, have we had in the past 20 years?
• A significant percentage of government contractors (working in the defense industry, as well as contractors supporting other government agencies) have security clearances or public trust determinations. How many contractors, cumulatively, have we had in the past 20 years?
• A measurable percentage of state employees require some sort of investigation for a clearance or restricted access to data.

If you were in the service and had a clearance for 4 years back in the 90s, you're in that database. If you had a job for a couple of years supporting a defense contractor like Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon, etc., and had a clearance, you're in that database. If you were in ROTC and had to get cleared in order to go on summer training, you're in that database.

I can easily see 21.5 million. And that doesn't include the information on neighbors and family members that are collected for people with clearances that required an actual background investigation.

[laplata]

“I stopped at “21.5 million federal employees “ how in the hell do we have that many!”?

And contractors. You should have kept reading.