Federal HR office pulls back curtain on sweeping NDA plan aimed at curbing government leaks

By Fox News · Fox News

The Trump administration is advancing a proposal for federal agencies to use standardized nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) with employees as part of a broader push to stop internal discussions from leaking to the press. "This is going through the full regulatory process, so people can give notices and comments," said Office of Personnel Management (OPM) director Scott Kupor to Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview on Wednesday. "We'll respond to all those things as well … I'd be surprised, if at the end of the day, we aren't successful in showing people that this is important for preserving deliberative decision-making in the government." The proposal would create a template NDA for federal agencies to use with employees, requiring workers to acknowledge existing confidentiality rules as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown on internal leaks following incidents including the Venezuela raid leak and the doxing of ICE agents. Officials said the policy is meant to protect sensitive internal discussions, while critics question whether it could chill whistleblower protections and employee speech. DHS FIRES SENIOR CBP OFFICIAL FOR LEAKING SENSITIVE INFORMATION Kupor pointed to a "simple example" of why he said the NDAs are needed. OPM functions as the federal government’s human resources agency, overseeing personnel policy and workforce rules for federal employees. "I had a meeting today … we had 10 people in the room … it's really hard to run the organization if we have that conversation and then nine out of those 10 people go call the media and say, ‘hey, let me just tell you what we talked about in this conversation.’" "It just 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 to a place that I think is just not good for anybody," he added. Federal employees are already required to safeguard certain confidential and sensitive government information obtained throu…