Trump administration demands federal worker NDAs in new crackdown on leaks

Gregory Korte, Bloomberg News on May 26, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is moving to create a government-wide nondisclosure agreement for federal workers after a number of high-profile and unauthorized leaks in recent months.

The Office of Personnel Management, which serves as the federal government’s human resources arm, proposed the standardized NDA form Tuesday and said agencies that use it would administer it to both new hires and current employees.

The proposal specifically mentions leaks related to the American military raid in Venezuela in January and planned enforcement actions by immigration agents in the U.S.

OPM’s notice, sent to the Office of the Federal Register Tuesday, is a proposal, and the agency is seeking public comment on the scope, form and enforcement of any nondisclosure agreements.

It would restrict disclosures of its internal decision-making, “pre-decisional documents and interagency comments exchanged during internal coordination processes.”

‘Criminal Penalties’

The draft says violators are subject to disciplinary action “up to and including removal and debarment from future Federal employment or contractor status, and civil and criminal penalties.”

Nondisclosure agreements have often been blasted by labor activists, who say they make it harder to speak out about workplace wrongdoing. In his first term, President Donald Trump instituted nondisclosure agreements for White House employees in what First Amendment advocates said was a “a grave affront to our system of free expression.”

OPM sought to cast Tuesday’s NDA proposal as an effort to restore trust and improve agency operations.

Personal Data

“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. “Americans should be able to trust that their personal data and sensitive government information are being handled responsibly.”

The rule would define confidential government information as “non-public, confidential, or proprietary information” relating to “internal agency operations, personnel matters, procurement processes, or any sensitive, pre-decisional or deliberative material that is not currently publicly available and should not be disclosed under applicable law.”

NDAs in the federal government have legal limits. The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act allows disclosures to Congress and to agency inspectors general if federal employees have evidence of wrongdoing.

As authority for the NDA, the administration cites Trump’s executive order last year putting Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in charge of a “workforce optimization initiative” that imposed new suitability requirements for federal employees. Musk later moved on from the DOGE effort.