Excerpted from thewashingtonpost.com, by Aaron Gregg

The federal government is struggling to conduct background checks on people seeking security clearances, creating a backlog that one industry group says encompasses more than 700,000 applicants.

As of March, the process for a top secret security clearance took more than 450 days to conclude, a federal official reported in May, more than a half-year longer than it took in April 2016.

As the backlog has mounted, the Office of Personnel Management recently stopped reporting on the numbers of people waiting for approval.

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