PSH-23-0074 - In the Matter of Personnel Security Hearing

On July 20, 2023, an Administrative Judge (AJ) determined that the Individual's access authorization under 10 C.F.R. Part 710 should not be granted.

The Individual submitted a Questionnaire for National Security Positions (QNSP) to a Local Security Office (LSO) in which she was required to report any past due debts.  Although the Individual had a past due debt to a Federal agency, she did not report it on her QNSP. However, a credit report obtained by the LSO, shortly after the QNSP was submitted indicated that the Individual had a delinquent Federal debt of $1,246,959.  In addition, the Individual had not submitted her Federal and state tax returns for tax years 2019, 2020, and 2021.

The Individual both claimed that she did not report the Federal debt because she saw it as a "service obligation" rather than a loan, and that she was not aware of the debt when she submitted the QNSP . The AJ found that the Individual was highly likely to have been aware of the debt when she submitted her QNSP since she admitted that she had made inquiries about the debt with the agency to which it was owed approximately six months before she submitted the QNSP. The AJ further noted that when confronted with the debt by an investigator, the Individual did not deny its existence, but rather ( inaccurately) disputed its size. Accordingly, the AJ found that the security concerns raised by the Individual's failure to disclose the debt had not been mitigated or resolved.

The AJ noted that the Individual had not repaid the debt or entered a repayment plan. While the Individual submitted evidence that she had recently applied for a waiver of the service obligation that led to the delinquent debt, approximately six years after it became past due, she did provide evidence indicating that her waiver request was likely to be granted.  Moreover, the AJ found that the Individual's lack of diligence in addressing her past due debt (the Individual received notice that this debt was past due in October 2017) raised concerns about her judgment and reliability.  Accordingly, the AJ found that the security concerns raised by the Individual's failure to resolve the debt had not been mitigated or resolved.

Because the Individual submitted evidence that she had filed her Federal and state tax returns for tax years 2019, 2020, and 2021, the AJ found that the security concerns raised by the Individual's failure to file these tax returns in a timely manner had been resolved.

The Administrative Judge therefore concluded that the Individual's access authorization should not be granted. (OHA Case No. PSH-23-0074, Fine)