NATIONAL COUNTERINTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY CENTER – OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE.  2015 Annual Report on Security Clearance Determinations, Unclassified. June 28, 2016.
“This 2015 annual security clearance determinations report provides the current state of government security clearances. The report is divided into two sections, Security Clearance Volume for the Entire Federal Government and Security Clearance Performance for Each Element of the IC. The first section reports total volume of individuals eligible for access to classified information and is further broken down by the number of individuals who have been briefed and are currently “in access” as well as those eligible but currently “not in access.” In FY 2015 , there were decreases in both these categories. There was also a reduction in new clearances approved. The majority of decreases resulted from Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) successful implementation of data quality initiatives (DQIs) that have positively impacted areas of data quality and data integrity. However, some agencies indicated that decreases in their overall population were the result of efforts across the USG to review and validate whether an employee or contractor still requires access to classified information in accordance with an executive correspondence (DNI Executive Correspondence, “Strategy to Reduce the Periodic Reinvestigation Backlog Using a Risk-Based Approach,” signed by the DNI on September 26, 2014)…”

• See also via POGO – Security Clearances Drop but Intelligence Problems Remain