Incoming Summer Students to Get

DPSAC will issue the new Restricted Local Access (RLA) badge for physical and logical access to all summer students this year.

The RLA Badge requires the normal two appointments. During the first appointment the student will be identity proofed, fingerprinted and photographed. At the second appointment, the student will be issued his or her RLA Badge. Issuance is subject to DPSAC's successful review of the fingerprint-check results.

Any issues identified through the fingerprint check (i.e., issues that might impact the suitability of the summer student to do the proposed work at NIH), must be reviewed by the Personnel Security Office in DPSAC prior to issuance of an RLA Badge.

Helpful tip: DPSAC is encouraging ICs to advise their incoming students to make their enrollment and badging appointments as soon as they are able to do so to avoid any delay in the ID badging process.

The RLA Badge Lifecycle

An RLA Badge will be valid for the duration of the summer student's appointment, but will expire no later than September 30 of the year it is issued. Badges should be collected and returned to DPSAC or the appropriate badge issuance office when the summer student leaves.

 

Avoiding "Inadvertent" Deactivation of NED Fellow Records

NED obtains data from the Fellowship Payment System (FPS) and applies automatic updates daily at 5:30AM (except on Sunday and Monday).  Automatic updates include the deactivation of NED fellow records the day after FPS indicates a fellow is no longer on an active award. 

In order to prevent NED from deactivating a fellow who will be staying on at NIH in a different capacity, an AO must reclassify the person to something other than fellow (e.g., NIH FTE, special volunteer) prior to the expiration of the FPS award. 

An AO can perform the NED reclassification any time after the first business day of the month in which the fellow's FPS award expires.  For example, in the case of a fellow converting to NIH FTE whose FPS award expires on May 15, 2015, an AO can reclassify the person in NED any time between May 4th and May 15th to prevent the automatic deactivation of the NED record on May 16 at 5:30AM.  

'Track Badge Status' reports in NED can now generate two additional status categories: "Waiting for DPSAC to authorize ID badge issuance" & "DPSAC authorized ID Badge issuance."

Prior to October 2014, DPSAC was required to receive a completed e-QIP from the applicant and obtain a clean fingerprint report from OPM before issuing a PIV Card. 

New federal requirements mandate that the agency (DPSAC) review the e-QIP submission and related forms for accuracy and completeness and then release the reviewed background investigation package to OPM.

The steps in authorizing an HHS ID Badge

After an applicant is enrolled, NED's Badge Activation status screen will show "Waiting for DPSAC to authorize ID Badge Issuance." 

Once DPSAC has obtained a clean fingerprint report and verified that the required forms are filled out correctly, DPSAC will release the materials to OPM.

The completion of both of these requirements triggers a new status message in NED, "DPSAC Authorized ID Badge Issuance." Once authorization has been confirmed, the applicant will automatically receive an e-mail advising him or her to schedule an appointment.

Please remember that if DPSAC is unable to release these materials to OPM due to missing or inaccurate information, the applicant can expect a delay in receiving his or her badge.