Federal workers could soon face a sweeping new gag rule, under a proposed nondisclosure agreement floated by the Trump administration. A draft notice from the Office of Personnel Management, seen on the Federal Register on Tuesday, outlines a government-wide NDA that would bar employees from disclosing a broad range of "confidential government information," going well beyond standard classified and unclassified labels, reports the Washington Post. The proposal would prohibit sharing any nonpublic "sensitive, pre-decisional, or deliberative" material, with individual agencies free to decide whether to adopt it.
The OPM cites recent leaks, including about a US military operation involving Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, as justification, arguing that disclosures endangered troops and forced news outlets to delay publication. The administration has already leaned on NDAs at the Pentagon—paired with random polygraphs—to combat leaks, and at the Department of Veterans Affairs to keep planned mass layoffs under wraps. Federal law, however, bars such agreements from curbing whistleblowers who report waste, fraud, or abuse. The draft will undergo a 30-day public comment period. "This move is rooted in concerns that unauthorized disclosures of sensitive government information are disrupting agency operations and eroding trust across government," an OPM spokesperson tells Reuters.
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