Trump widens leak crackdown with federal worker NDAs

The Trump administration is moving to require non-disclosure agreements across the federal workforce under a draft Federal Register notice, expanding its anti-leak drive beyond individual agencies and opening a fight over how far the White House can tighten secrecy rules for career civil servants.

The proposal, issued by the Office of Personnel Management and open for comment for 30 days, would create a standard agreement for federal employees across government. That would move leak enforcement from agency-by-agency practice to a common civil-service rule touching departments that handle policy, benefits, enforcement and procurement. President Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted unauthorized contacts with journalists, and the proposal would give agencies a single form to use if those disputes turn into personnel cases.

About 2 million federal employees already must protect confidential and proprietary information, BBC News reported. The proposal would not create secrecy duties from nothing. It would standardize the document and sharpen the enforcement threat. Critics say the legal fight will turn on how broadly the administration applies that threat.

OPM said the change is meant to protect internal deliberations and keep agencies functioning. In language cited by BBC News, the draft notice said unauthorized disclosures can:

“risk chilling candid interagency feedback, disrupting orderly decision-making, and weakening trust within and among Federal agencies”
— Office of Personnel Management notice, BBC News

That language places the proposal inside the administration’s broader argument that leaks can disrupt decision-making inside government.

The agency also said the agreement would preserve lawful disclosures, including protected whistleblower complaints, according to BBC News. That assurance is likely to become the central point of dispute during the comment period. The administration says the form can coexist with existing whistleblower protections. Opponents are expected to test whether federal workers trust that promise when the same document warns of penalties for unauthorized disclosures.

Union response

Labor groups challenged the plan almost immediately. Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the administration was building a mechanism agencies could use against workers who refuse to sign. In remarks carried by BBC News, Kelley said:

“OPM will pressure agencies to make the NDA mandatory and then fire employees who refuse to sign it”
— Everett Kelley, American Federation of Government Employees, BBC News

His response points to a fight over both policy and the day-to-day terms of federal employment.

For critics, the stakes extend beyond current staff. Reuters reported that former employees could face civil and criminal penalties under the draft, raising the pressure if the rule is finalized close to its current form. OPM has also cited earlier disclosures, including the release of personal information for about 4,500 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, as evidence that existing controls were insufficient, according to BBC News. Together, those arguments give the administration a factual basis for a stricter government-wide rule.

What comes next

The next step is the 30-day comment process, followed by a decision on whether to adopt the language across agencies. An important question is whether departments are merely encouraged or effectively pressed to make the form mandatory. If the proposal survives largely intact, the administration’s anti-leak campaign would move from headline disputes with the press into the routine rules governing the civil service.