Feeling Like a Criminal

I've been at my new job just over a month now. To enter my building, and even my suite of offices, you need a handy little ID badge. However, due to new Homeland Security restrictions, getting a badge apparently now involves an in-depth background check, criminal investigation, credit check, and the ever-fun fingerprinting. So that's how I started my day today. Then they discovered they'd given me the wrong fingerprinting form and I had to do the fingerprinting twice. Keep in mind, I'm not officially classified as a government employee, and I'm certainly not doing any top-secret crap. What I want to know is:

1. What the hell do they need to check my credit for? I don't have the authority to get anywhere near the company checkbook, credit card, etc. Plus if my credit sucks, that's why I'm working, to pay off my bills. It's such an infringement of privacy I could just scream. I could see if I had an accounting job or something like that, but hello, marketing?

2. What about the 500+ employees who were hired before this whole investigation thing started (right before I was hired)? They could be friggin criminals and what, that doesn't matter? Just let them keep running around the building unchecked, good plan.

In case you hadn't guessed, I was supremely pissed today. Not to mention the fact that for a month I've had to loiter at the door to my office waiting for someone to let me in, or call someone to let me in.

Oh, and the reason it's taken a month to get this far? The person who normally handles badges is out and no one else could seem to get their act together to push this through. They're haggling about who's paying for the background check etc. So I don't even have a real badge yet, just a temporary one until my background check is complete. The government is run by idiots.