 Welcome, and thank you for joining today's State, Local, Tribal, and Private Sector Policy Advisory Committee meeting, also known as the SLTPS PAC. To receive all pertinent information about upcoming SLTPS PAC meetings, please subscribe to the Information Security Oversight Offices Overview Blog at isu-overview.blogs.archives.gov or by going to the Federal Register. All available meeting materials have been emailed to registrants. Please mute all audio connections when you are not speaking. This is a public meeting, like previous SLTPS PAC meetings, this will be recorded. This recording, along with the transcript and minutes, will be available within 90 days at www.archives.gov slash isu slash oversight hyphen groups slash SLTPS dash PAC slash committee.html. Let me now turn things over to Mr. Bill Fisher, the Acting Director of ISU, as well as the Acting Chairman of the SLTPS PAC. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the 26th meeting of the SLTPS PAC. I'm Bill Fisher, the Acting Director of ISU. I'm also the Director of the National Declassification Center at the National Archives in my permanent position. At this time, I do not have any news to share about when a permanent Director of ISU will be coming on board. I will now turn it over to my designated Federal Officer, Heather Harris-Pagan. Thank you, sir. I will now begin attendance. I know that our Acting Chairman, Mr. Fisher, is here. SLTPS PAC Vice Chairman, Rich McCombe, Department of Energy member, Mark Hynoski, DOE's alternate, Tracy Kindle. President, can you hear me? Yes, sir. Thank you. DOE's other alternate, Natasha Sumter, Nuclear Regulatory Commission member, Tara Inverso, NRC's alternate, Darryl Parsons. I hear the wrong one. Thank you. Department of Transportation member, Sidoni Dunham. Present. Thank you. Department of Defense member, Michael Russo, Office of the Director of National Intelligence member, Lisa Perez. Present. Thank you. Federal Bureau of Investigations member, Jacob Zockard, FBI's alternate, Scott Gerlach, Department of State member, Jake Connor. Good morning. I'm present. Thank you. State's alternate, Darryl Hicks, Department of Justice member, Glenn Benzley, Defense, Counterintelligence and Security Agency member, Derek Broussard. DCSA's alternate. Thank you. I'm sorry? Scott Cronin is the alternate that's attending for Derek. Thank you. Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency member, Nitin Narajatan, Private Sector member, Jeffrey Imstall, State Mountain Region member, Kevin Klein. Present. Thank you. Private Sector member, Cameron Birx, State Mountain Region member, Chris Palmer. Present. Thank you. We request that everyone identify themselves by name and agency if applicable before speaking each time for the record. I want to remind government membership of their requirement to annually file a financial disclosure report with the National Archives and Records Administration's Office of General Counsel. The same form of financial disclosure that is used throughout the federal government, OGE Form 450 satisfies reporting requirements. If you have any questions, please let us know. We've had a few changes to the PAC memberships since the last meeting. Megan Tupner, our local East member with the NYPD, has reached the end of her term as has Mary Michelle Schechter, our local East member with the Nassau County Department of Health in New York State. Keith Minard with DCSA is retiring. Jeremy Stroka representing the Midwest in Iowa for state matters withdrew from the SLTPS PAC. Chris Palmer, our State Mountain member with the State of Utah courts, is a new member. Some of you may also know our alternate designated federal officer, Robert Trangalli. He's leaving us for retirement later this summer. Additionally, we still have 8 out of 12 slots at our membership in addition to our vice chair position. If you have any nominations, please bring them to our attention. For those departed members, thank you all for your contributions over the years. We look forward to continuing the work you have done with new representatives. The minutes from the last meeting were finalized and posted to the ICI website on September 29, 2023. I will now address the items of interest from the September 20, 2023 SLTPS PAC public meeting. Several members mentioned the frustration of what the reality is for clearance processing versus what DHS states when there is no law of jam. Is anyone from DHS on the call that can speak to that? All right, it looks like DHS wasn't able to make the call. Does anyone have any questions that we can pass on? Heather, Kevin Kline, the GSAC. DHS did brief us the beginning of the month about their, in INA, getting the local clearances, state and local clearances done. And they've stepped up their processing times, added some resources that we did get some feedback from them on what they were doing. And we're appreciative of the efforts to start addressing that backlog. Okay, great. I appreciate that, Kevin. Thank you. Hey, Heather. This is Don from CIA. I'm just, I'm not on this subject, but I just wanted to tell you I didn't hear our name. So I just want to let you know we're on the call. I apologize. I've got it. Thank you, Don. Are there any questions from the public? Candice, do you see anything in the chat or on the phone line? I don't, but if you do have a question, you can press either pound 2. If you've connected by phone, you can post your questions in chat here on Webex. You can also use the raise hand button at the bottom of your screen. Thank you, Candice. Just want to do one more check to see if anyone from DHS is on the call for the briefing since they were the only briefers today. Okay, we are now at the point of the meeting where we ask for SLTPS PAC members to present any new business that they have. Anyone? Members of the committee, your lines are open. You don't need to request to be unmuted. Mr. Fisher, it looks like DHS is not on the call. So, if you want to go ahead and close out the meeting, this satisfies the requirements for a public meeting. However, yes. And this is a, this is one of the strata. I could hear you guys, but I wasn't able to get through. Am I too late? Are you guys concluded? Um, are you going to be briefing for Mr. McComb? Yeah, I'm sorry. I was trying to get, um, I don't know what happened, but I could hear everybody speaking. I just couldn't get through. And I'm sorry. I apologize to everybody. Mr. McComb wasn't able to make it. So, again, this is one strata with DHS, OCS. So, and I do have some information to be able to present. Is this a good time now? Yes. Okay. Again, my apologies. So, I did hear you speak the question about the backlog. I do have some information in regards to the backlog. And then I have a couple of points that, um, that I just wanted to present to this. So, we were tracking a total of 215 backlog cases since the last act, 19 of which have been granted an interim secret clearance. 11 are undergoing a SAC check and there's still 139 pending. We put a little bit of a tiger team together to try to, um, put effort and force behind the backlog. And so we, we partnered up with different offices within DHS. We still have a long way to go, but I do see a lot of movement going forward in meetings with PSD and the DTSO here at DHS. Again, this is a high initiative for us. And when we do have a couple of task force in place to kind of try to tackle this backlog, I did hear a couple of individuals mentioned that we have griefed in the past. A couple of, of movements, and that's true. We'll continue to move forward in tackling these, these backlogs for this. So, these are the numbers that I have right now. We were, we were tracking 215. We still have 139 that we're looking at right now. There's going to be some instances where we're probably going to have to have some individuals re nominate folks, or at least validate the nomination of that. And that's what we're currently going through right now is reviewing all the nominations forms that were pushed to, to DHS. So, any, any questions from the group on that? Okay. So, there's a couple of key points that DHS also wanted to brief. And again, my apologies. I don't know what happened. I like to get through, but so from SLTPS security program management clearance numbers, DHS currently has approximately 7,231. SLTPS personnel with DHS office care. 88% of those are at the secret level. Bubble more at the top secret level. And this includes CBP, TISA, DHS headquarters, FEMA, FLETC, and ICE. So we, that those numbers are as of a couple of days ago. Again, that's a 7,231 cleared personnel. Another program management point that I wanted to bring up is that the DHS, our office is actually the certifying official to the secure rooms at the fusion centers that support the I&A mission. We, we go out on about a tri annual basis to, to these locations. There's 85 locations that we do compliance inspections on. So, we scheduled 20 for this year. So, I just wanted to brief that we have already completed 7 for this fiscal year and we see no issues with completing the rest of them. There's, there's a couple of findings that we're seeing on in the field that's more of an administrative findings, but DHS sees no issue from these locations during our inspections. There's also 3 initiatives that I wanted to, to bring to the, to the group as we all know the issues that happened up in Massachusetts kind of had everybody we look within their own programs on their, their clearance process. And because of these events, DHS launched a department wide review of the personal access to classified national security information. The security view includes partnering with the various minds of business such as the chief information officer, chief human capital officer, chief procurement officer. And the purpose of this initiative is to enhance the department's white clearance validation standards and to prevent unauthorized disclosure. We're anticipating a final report to come out in August of 2024 and I think that's going to line up with the next pack. So we'll have some, we should have some results from that report to be able to present if there's any, any gaps that we identified within our own program expected around August of 2024. We also launched a new training platform for SLTPS community. In the past is a pretty laborious tasking to email, you know, over 7,000 individuals, a PowerPoint presentation for their annual security refresher training. So we're utilizing the an e-learning management system that INA has for their individuals. So with last year, DHS uploaded over 7,000 clearance holders into this new platform. And we were successfully able to provide that, that training to the SLTPS community from a technological perspective and get away with the validation of did you complete the training yes or no. So DHS has now launched that initiative and we expect all SLTPS clearance holders to be in the system by the end of this year. And then last but not least, we are DHS initiated a policy view of the implementing directive for Executive Order 13549. DHS has fallen up with the OGC regulatory affairs to enter into rulemaking. DHS will keep all PAC members updated of any progress made and when the final decision has been made in regards to implementing directive. An implementing directive is a really outdated document that really is the policy driver for a lot of the decisions that are made. So we're looking to bring that policy up to current date and we'll keep the PAC identified and notified as when changes are expected to be made on that. Obviously, we're going to be working with the, with the PAC on that as well. So we'll keep everybody. Again, I apologize for not being able to get through earlier, but any questions for, for me. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any questions for DHS? Candice anyone in the queue with questions? We have a couple of questions from Lee Watson. I'm going to unmute your line if you'd like to ask those questions yourself. We can read them from chat if you would prefer. Lee Watson, you're unmuted now. Hey, thank you. I think when you, when you unmuted me, the system spoke over you so it was hard to hear. So yeah, I just have three questions, maybe for DHS or maybe for the broader group relative to how this works in the field at more of the state or regional level. So I just, I guess go through them really quickly. Lee Watson with Forge Institute, we work with the state of Arkansas and most of the critical infrastructure in our state to robust cybersecurity protection. So my first question is, I'm wondering if there's an opportunity for OD and I to help normalize the idea of using secret and TS facilities in the field for discussions or participation in various virtual VTCs. On the high side without having to implement a co use agreement. The capability for this varies greatly outside of the NCR. My second question is I'm wondering if there are strategies that look at deeper high side collaboration in the field with local trusted relationships again both kind of at a state. State government city government as well as the major critical infrastructure companies. And then the third question is just really kind of an expanded on that as to across the various departments and agencies. You know, could we build a list of the value proposition and the concerns specifically from the council's offices. As to the reasons to share class of information what forms types methods programs existing collaborations does that take. So as to really understand what best practices look like and the alignment of benefits for both the federal government. As well as the various SLTPS organizations in the field. Hi, this is Lisa from OD and I can hear me. Yes ma'am. Hi, I didn't capture all of the 1st question. I'm sorry. Can you please repeat that that 1st question? Surely have access to the to the. The platform so I can't see what what you wrote. Sorry. For sure. No worries. Yeah. So the, so the question with OD and I was, you know, the, the ICD 705. Policies and the co use agreements work really well for. SSOs with more formal engagements, but from a sort of no access to systems. Just using a skiff for discussions or participation in a VTC the. I'm wondering if only and I could help sort of normalize standardized that practice. Across the country, it's, it's, it's not the same out here in the field as it might be at the NCR. Does that make sense? I think so. So it sounds like something more so not particularly scheduled or planned. So right. So normally when there are events, it's easier to have these agreements in place, but it sounds like potentially these are sort of more unplanned events. And you're looking for more fluidity, fluidity and making it possible to utilize this gift. Or is this, is that what you're asking? Yeah, you know, if you look in, in 705 dash to the co use agreement stuff. It outlines. This pretty well, but it's not always a practice that's been done a whole lot and it's happening more. In, in states across the country. So being able to set some additional clarification. You know, or some material that says, hey, you know, if they're cleared, you can use it that they don't have to have access. You know, to an information system in order to be on a VTC, just some sort of practical operational guidance at maybe a more detailed level. I think would be, would be helpful. It's something that we've, we've overcome here, but I, but I taught the colleagues again outside of the coast. And that that practice is increasing, but it's not been as as fluid or standardized as it has been in DC. Okay. All right, I can, I don't have an answer for you today specifically, but I can certainly take a look into it and talk with the appropriate individuals here. At OD and I to see if there's something that can be put out and we can just have this as a follow on action. Is that possible to add that Heather. Yes, no problem. We are you good with that answer. Oh, yes, ma'am. That's great. Thank you. Are there any other questions. Candice any other questions in the queue or chat. There are no further questions that I see. Okay. Mr. Fisher a turn it over to you now to close out the meeting. Thank you, Heather. Our next SLT PS pack. Meeting is scheduled for July 10 July 10 2024. As a reminder, all SLT PS pack meeting announcements are posted in the federal register. Approximately 30 days prior to the meeting, along with being posted to the ISO blog. Meeting adjourned.