What to Know About the Trump Administration’s Proposal for Government-Wide NDAs

The Trump Administration is proposing requiring all government workers to sign nondisclosure agreements that would prohibit them from sharing sensitive information, according to a draft notice posted on the Federal Register by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

The rule would apply to new and existing government employees, according to the draft, which says that the goal of the proposed NDAs is “to safeguard non-public, confidential, or proprietary information.” 

Federal employees are already barred from sharing certain information, as the draft notice noted. But OPM offered a broad definition in the draft of “confidential government information” that would be covered by the NDAs, including—but not limited to, it noted—“information relating to internal agency operations, personnel matters, procurement processes, or any sensitive, pre-decisional or deliberative material that is not currently publicly available.” Unauthorized disclosures of such information, the draft states, “disrupt agency operations and erode public trust.”

Notably, agencies would be able to choose whether to opt into the NDAs for their employees. 

“In much of the private sector, employees handling sensitive business or customer information are routinely required to sign confidentiality agreements, and the federal government should not be held to a lower standard,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement Tuesday. “Americans should be able to trust that their personal data and sensitive government information are being handled responsibly. This proposal reinforces accountability across the federal workforce while helping agencies better protect against unauthorized disclosures.”

The proposed rule would not replace or nullify existing NDAs government workers may be required to sign per their agencies’ requirements, according to the draft, which also noted that workers would retain the “right to make disclosures authorized by law.” It does not specify what penalties might be sought for workers who release confidential information deemed to be covered by the NDAs. Existing laws, including the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act from 2012, bar NDAs from limiting whistleblowers’ ability to report cases of government fraud, waste, or abuse. 

OPM told TIME in a statement that “the consequences for violating the agreement hasn’t been determined, this is still up for public comment.” A 30-day public comment period for the proposed rule will begin on Wednesday, when the draft notice will be published.

In the draft notice, the agency cited several recent leaks that have occurred during the second Trump Administration. In one instance last year, it said, unauthorized disclosures of immigration enforcement plans by employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “impeded enforcement of Federal law and put the lives of Federal agents in danger.”

In another instance referenced in the draft, The New York Times and Washington Post learned of confidential information relating to the U.S. attack on Venezuela in January that led to the capture of its leader, Nicolás Maduro. OPM said, citing reporting from Semafor, that “these leaks put the lives of members of the armed forces at risk, leading news organizations to delay ‘publishing what they knew to avoid endangering US troops.’” 

Trump’s Administrations have attempted to quell the flow of sensitive or confidential information out of its agencies using NDAs before. 

During his first term, Trump reportedly had his senior staff sign NDAs. More recently, in April of last year the Veterans Affairs Department required employees working on plans to cut tens of thousands of its staffers amid the Administration’s broader efforts to cut the federal workforce to sign NDAs. (Those plans were later cancelled.) The Washington Post reported months later, in October, that the Pentagon planned to impose NDAs for its workers, along with random polygraph tests.

Trump’s Administrations have also brought lawsuits against multiple people they have claimed disclosed information that was classified or covered by an NDA. During Trump’s first term, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued former national security adviser John Bolton in 2020 over his book “The Room Where it Happened,” alleging it contained “classified national security information.” Later that year, the DOJ sued First Lady Melania Trump’s former adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff over her tell-all book “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady,” claiming she breached an NDA signed in 2017. The department dropped both lawsuits after President Joe Biden took office, as well as a criminal inquiry it had opened into the publication of Bolton’s book.