WASHINGTON (TIP): Indian American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of the House Oversight Committee on July 19 successfully introduced an amendment ordering a review of White House security clearance procedures by requiring the National Background Investigations Bureau to report to Congress on the process for conducting and adjudicating security clearance requests for the Executive Office of the President.
The Krishnamoorthi amendment comes in the wake of Senior Advisors to the President Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions all omitting significant information about foreign contacts from their applications for security clearances. The measure passed the Oversight Committee by a unanimous voice vote and amended H.R.3210, a resolution regarding the national backlog of security clearance investigations.
Congressman Krishnamoorthi released the following statement on the passage of his amendment:
“It seems every day we learn of more undisclosed foreign contacts with senior Trump administration officials. In just the last two weeks, we have learned that Senior White House Advisor Jared Kushner failed to disclose his participation in a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer and her associates, including a former Soviet intelligence officer and an individual linked to a federal money laundering investigation. This is just one example of a foreign contact Mr. Kushner failed to disclose when he reportedly omitted more than one hundred from his SF-86 security clearance application.
My amendment would require the Director of the National Background Investigations Bureau to report to Congress on the processes by which senior administration officials apply for and receive security clearances. Access to our nation’s secrets should demand the highest levels of scrutiny and the strictest adherence to security procedure to protect against compromise by hostile foreign powers.
Mr. Kushner and other senior administration officials repeatedly failed to disclose their foreign contacts, including those with hostile powers. It is essential that we determine whether this failure puts them or our nation at risk.”
Krishnamoorthi represents the 8th District of Illinois and serves on Government Reform and Education and Workforce panels and also as the ranking member on the subcommittee on Health Care, Benefits, and Administrative Rules.