‘Purge the civil service’: Trump’s new NDA would silence every federal worker who knows where the bodies are buried

The Trump administration is preparing a government-wide nondisclosure agreement (NDA) that would require all federal workers to sign a broad agreement, stopping them from sharing any confidential information with the public or the media. The draft proposal was posted to the Federal Register on Tuesday and will go through a 30-day public comment period after it is published.

According to CNN, the proposal defines confidential information as “internal agency operations, personnel matters, procurement processes, or any sensitive, pre-decisional or deliberative material that is not currently publicly available and should not be disclosed under applicable law.” This is a very wide definition that would cover a large range of internal government matters.

The administration says the NDA is meant to track federal employees’ agreement to “safeguard non-public, confidential or proprietary information, created or obtained through their official duties.” But major federal employee unions have strongly pushed back against the proposal, calling it an overreach.

Federal employee unions say the NDA is a direct attack on workers’ First Amendment rights

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union representing federal workers, has spoken out firmly against the draft. “This proposed NDA is another attempt by the administration to purge the civil service of nonpartisan career employees and replace them with loyalists who won’t speak out against waste, fraud, and abuse,” said Everett Kelley, AFGE’s national president. 

“Federal employees do not surrender their First Amendment rights when they accept federal employment, and the public has a right to know about this administration’s abuses.” The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the second-largest federal employee union, has also vowed to fight the proposal. 

“There is no basis for forcing more than two million federal workers to sign non-disclosure agreements,” said Doreen Greenwald, NTEU’s national president. “Existing law protects our nation’s secrets.” These developments come amid a broader pattern of tension between the administration and federal institutions, similar to Elon Musk’s public accusations against the Pentagon over its use of Starlink for military purposes.

This is not the first time the Trump administration has tried to limit what federal workers can say publicly. In March, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles sent an email to Trump staff warning that unauthorized leaks would not be tolerated and could lead to termination. The email came after growing frustration inside the West Wing over staffers sharing details of internal tensions with the press.

Wiles has also pushed for tighter control within the executive branch more broadly, advising Cabinet officials to avoid nonessential international trips in the lead-up to the midterm elections. The administration’s increasingly firm grip on internal communications is just one part of a wider set of foreign and domestic pressures it is managing, including far-right leaders challenging Trump on Iran over his nuclear deal with Tehran.

Max Stier, the chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group focused on improving the federal government, told CNN: “This administration has created an employee base that is already too scared to do the right thing, and this is yet another nail in the coffin of good information getting to the American public.”