With approximately 450,000 background investigations in inventory and an executive order shifting its operations under the Defense Department, the National Background Investigations Bureau is optimistic about its future. The agency this year has made significant progress in churning through its backlog, which reached 725,000 at its peak in April 2018, said NBIB Director and Acting Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency Director Charles Phalen in a roundtable interview. As Phalen assured progress would continue, he was quick to note that the agency operates in a steady state with thousands of cases in its working inventory. The backlog, in a sense, will never be eliminated. "When you think about what our goal here is, it is never to get to zero because that just will never work out. Our working inventory that allows us to stay timely is roughly 200,000," he said.