Changing contracts during re-investigation

SECURITY CLEARANCE Q&A
#1

Morning everyone, i have a question that been bugging me. My contract is up for rebid in JULY 2022 and my TS clearance is at its 6 year mark in April 2022. I assume my company will start my re-investigation before the contract rebid date. Below are the two scenarios I hope someone can give me feedback on:

1 - new company wins contract in JULY 2022 and hires me. Will they take over my re-investigation and everything runs smooth?

2 - new company wins contract in JULY 2022 and does NOT hire me. Is my clearance re-investigation lost and I am in jeopardy of losing my clearance?

#2

Hard to say for sure but here’s what my USB-enabled crystal ball says:

  1. Smooth sailing. Different contractor but same customer. Shouldn’t be an issue

  2. Crystal ball is kinda murky. Really depends on what contract you end up being considered for, how well a new contractor knows and works with the customer, that sort of thing.

In my experience, most people who don’t get hired by the new company when a contract changes hands involve the new company offering them a significantly lower salary.

In any case make sure they submit you for the re-investigation on time… is it 90 days before the six-year mark?

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#3

Oh the truths in item 2. The murky world of contracting…they can pursue you, offer crazy wonderful salaries…get you signed just to win the contract. Suddenly decide they are massively over extended and then make you miserable until you resign. And it matters not how good you are. If it saves them money…they will do it.

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#4

There was a company that staffed up massively to win a new job. Just as @amberbunny2 said, a few months later they let a bunch of people go. After that they held an all hands meeting, said “this is the team we want to keep” and life was good… for a few more months until the axe fell again. The guy who told me this story survived both rounds but got out as soon as he could… and he said they couldn’t understand why he was leaving…???

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#5

I think everyone understands cutting costs, being lean, best value…but it is a shyster deal with dirty hands on both sides. The government loves cheap contracts, and claims to love high performance standards. But they will take cheap over high performance every day of the week no matter what rhetoric they spew.

I do question the integrity of offering attractive salaries to incumbents just to win a contract and then push folks out the door or demand they take 40% salary cuts.

#6

Its crazy how much of a fragile time period the re-investigation period is. I’ve always been locked in with bigger companies (Northrop/Lockheed) on longer contracts (with crappy pay) during my re-investigation so this is new to me. Everyone I ask seems to say its a gray area and they don’t know what happens if your in the middle of your investigation and you lose your job. How long do TS re-investigations usually take? Before I didn’t even care how long since I was on 10 year contracts. Thanks in advance for your input!

#7

Many DoD industry (ie contractors) folks are being placed into CE after their SF86 submission is reviewed during their reinvestigation . You might be one of the lucky ones with no investigation triggers and be quickly placed into CE.

#8

What is CE? I think I may have a more complicated investigation this time since I got married a year ago. Hopefully it goes quick.

#9

CE is Continuous Evaluation, it is the new thing that is supposed to replace (or augment) periodic reinvestigations. But as far as I know, you have to go through some level of adjudication or review before you are moved into CE status (as @backgdinvestigator noted).

Aha, but will one agency ACCEPT being in “CE” status for a decision made by another agency? Some IC agencies let DSCA/DoDCAF do adjudications for contractors but others might not accept that. It is all still rather new.

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