Dan Coats testified on Tuesday that White House officials with temporary security clearance should be limited.
He said that although temporary security clearances were sometimes necessary, the individuals working on that basis should have limited access to classified information.
“I have publicly stated if that’s the case, the access has to be limited in terms of the kinds of information they can be in a position to receive or not receive,” he said. “So I think that’s something that we have to do as part of our security clearance review.”
Coats made his remarks after Democrat Sen. Martin Heinrich questioned him about reports that dozens of White House staffers, including White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, were operating under a temporary security clearance.
Coats described the security clearance as “broken,” citing a backlog of more than 700,000.
