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

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

https://time.com/article/2026/05/26/trump-administration-federal-workers-ndas/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

by Connor Greene Editorial Fellow


May 26, 2026 3:16 PM CT


Scenes from outside the United States Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2019.Sarah Silbiger—The Washington Post/Getty Images

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. .....................