The Office of Personnel Management posted a draft notice to the Federal Register on Tuesday proposing a government-wide nondisclosure agreement for federal workers, aimed at preventing them from sharing confidential information with journalists. The draft will be formally published on Wednesday and open for a 30-day public comment period.
The NDA would bar employees from sharing “non-public, confidential, or proprietary information” or “any sensitive, pre-decisional or deliberative material that is not currently publicly available and should not be disclosed under applicable law” — language that goes beyond standard classified and unclassified designations to cover a broad category of internal deliberations.
OPM said the form would be “optional,” meaning individual agencies retain discretion over whether to require it, though it is framed as applicable to both new hires and existing employees.
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In the filing, OPM cited specific recent leaks to justify the rule — including unauthorized disclosures by FBI and Department of Homeland Security employees about immigration enforcement operations, and leaks to the New York Times and Washington Post about the US raid that captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January. OPM said those disclosures “put the lives of members of the armed forces at risk.”
The Pentagon had already implemented NDAs and random polygraph testing in Trump’s second term to identify leaks. The Department of Veterans Affairs also required officials working on layoff plans to sign nondisclosure agreements — keeping much of its workforce in the dark about mass firing plans that were later canceled — according to the Washington Post.
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Under previous administrations, NDAs in the civilian federal workforce were largely limited to classified programs and sensitive procurement roles.
Federal whistleblower protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act and First Amendment considerations limit the enforceability of government NDAs — particularly any provisions restricting disclosures to Congress or inspectors general. Legal challenges to the draft’s broad language are expected during the comment period.
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