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Idea: Anyone running for a job that includes Classified access must get Security Clearance first [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-10-10  

Winning an election must not be a short cut or way to evade receiving security clearance. Lawmakers and other elected officials are currently are exempt from needing clearance or being investigated for conflicts, and the penalty for a lawmaker who reveals classified information is possible expulsion.

Once upon a time, the threat of scandal might arguably have prevented disclosure of national secrets, but now scandals are a fund-raising technique. Also after Citizens United, foreign money can now flow into US elections through dark money paths, raising the likelihood that a candidate may be subject to foreign influence. At least one hostile foreign power has attempted to influence our elections recently.

Without tagging any ‘Individual 1’, recent breaches of our nation’s most classified secrets have shown that the current system is dangerous and unreliable.

As with any civil servant, the standard process of securing clearance before receiving any classified information must be followed. Depending on the elected position, that might normally involve involve asking if your spouse is foreign, if you have ever had any financial problems or unusual debts, if you have foreign interests, psychological problems or any criminal behavior. The investigations are often rigorous and intrusive, but that’s what we demand of everyone else trusted with our most sensitive secrets.

Hypothetically, there may be a party that challenges the Constitutionality of such a reasonable idea, so I propose that the security clearance requirement not be an automatic dis-qualifier. If a candidate wins the election with a lower than expected security clearance, they should simply have to figure out how to do the job with whatever level of security clearance they can acquire.

Current elected officials should also have to get security clearance or lose access to classified information.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day.

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