Trump administration proposes NDAs for federal employees to stop leaks

The Trump administration is pushing a proposal for federal agencies to use standardized nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) with employees as part of a broader effort to prevent internal discussions from leaking to the press.

“This is going through the entire regulatory process so people can submit notice and comment,” Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview on Wednesday. “We will respond to all of these as well… I would be surprised if, at the end of the day, we are not successful in showing people that this is important to preserve deliberative decision-making in government.”

The proposal would create a template NDA for federal agencies to use with employees and would require employees to agree to existing privacy rules as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown on internal leaks in the wake of events such as the Venezuela raid leak and the ICE agent exposures. While officials say the policy is intended to protect sensitive internal company discussions, critics question whether it will affect whistleblower protections and employee speech.

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Kupor pointed to a “simple example” of why he says NDAs are needed. OPM serves as the federal government’s human resources agency and oversees personnel policy and workforce rules for federal employees.

“I had a meeting today… there were 10 people in the room… it’s really hard to run the organization if we have this conversation, and nine out of 10 people call the media and say, ‘hey, let me tell you what we’re talking about in this conversation.'”

“It puts us in a situation where you can’t run an organization. You can’t have a reasonable conversation with your team. It isolates decision-making into a place that I don’t think is good for anyone,” he added.

Federal employees are currently required to protect some confidential and sensitive government information obtained through their work. OPM said the proposed NDA would not impose significant new restrictions on employee speech, but instead would create a standardized process for federal employees to acknowledge existing legal and regulatory obligations regarding confidential information.

Kupor said the proposal of NDAs is to encourage open and honest dialogue in meetings.

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“We try to avoid situations where people feel like they can’t express their views at a meeting because they’re worried it’s going to be on the front page of the newspaper tomorrow. I don’t think that really helps us run the organizations on behalf of the American people,” Kupor said.

Critics argued that the administration expanded its oversight of the agency in an effort to contain damaging rhetoric emanating from within it.

Kevin Owen, partner at Gilbert Employment Law, specializing in federal employment matters He told the Government Administrator “OPM is now trying to become the super-personnel office that centralizes its authority over all federal employees, ostensibly at the behest of the White House. By now controlling how federal employees can communicate on matters of political concern, this takes another step toward enacting the spoils system and turning the civil service into the political arm of the White House.”

The proposal also said the agreement would expressly protect employees’ rights to make disclosures permitted under federal law, including protected whistleblower complaints.

Kupor said the proposal of NDAs is to encourage open and honest dialogue in meetings. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“I think people think [it’s] “It’s either another way to get rid of people, or we’re trying to stop people from saying whatever they want,” said Kupor, adding: “This is the furthest thing from the truth.” People can say whatever they want. “The problem is, if we’re having a conversation at work… I think it’s very reasonable for us to say that you shouldn’t broadcast something that normally is essentially a deliberative conversation process.”

Kupor said the administration should be able to hold discussions without leaks to the media, and once the decision is made, journalists can FOIA the information.

“People may object to this [U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board] and forward and stuff like that. This is how we work today. We’re not taking away anyone’s rights for any other adverse workplace-related actions,” Kupor said. “If you read the confidentiality agreements, it’s very clear that nothing in there interferes with the traditional reporting issues of people going to the inspector general.”

Kupor said he wasn’t sure whether the proposal was discussed during the first Trump administration or under previous administrations, but he argued that the rapid expansion of the media landscape has made agencies more vulnerable to leaks.

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The NDA proposal, filed in the Federal Register, cites recent events such as the Venezuela raid and the deletion of ICE agents’ personal information as reasons for the measure. (John Moore/Getty Images)

“Especially with the rise of social media and everything else, [federal employees] They feel like they want to help people outside the world understand what we’re doing. And none of this is intended to stop that. It just aims to enable us to have an open and honest conversation between people. And if people want to be citizen journalists, they can do that,” Kupor said.

While the Trump administration is already facing a number of legal challenges to its policy agenda, Kupor said he expects the NDA proposal to also come under review.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of lawyers and organizations that make a living finding and prosecuting things they don’t like about the Trump administration. But in this case, I feel very, very comfortable,” he said.

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The proposal is open for public comment on or before June 26, according to OPM.