--- title: What to Know About the Trump Administration's Proposal for Government-Wide NDAs description: The Administration said the proposed rule aims “to safeguard non-public, confidential, or proprietary information.” canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/05/26/trump-administration-federal-workers-ndas/ author: Connor Greene article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-05-27T12:58:04.770Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-26T20:16:35.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: What to Know About the Trump Administration's Proposal for Government-Wide NDAs og:description: The Administration said the proposed rule aims “to safeguard non-public, confidential, or proprietary information.” og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/05/26/trump-administration-federal-workers-ndas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51163e2d5d28b7a4/6a15f053295af9651e4aab22/GettyImages-1146937758.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: GettyImages-1146937758.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About the Trump Administration's Proposal for Government-Wide NDAs twitter:description: The Administration said the proposed rule aims “to safeguard non-public, confidential, or proprietary information.” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51163e2d5d28b7a4/6a15f053295af9651e4aab22/GettyImages-1146937758.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About the Trump Administration's Proposal for Government-Wide NDAs > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Connor Greene](https://time.com/author/connor-greene/) ## Connor Greene Editorial Fellow May 27, 2026 12:58 PM UTC  Scenes from outside the United States Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2019. 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 by [Connor Greene](https://time.com/author/connor-greene/) ## Connor Greene Editorial Fellow May 27, 2026 12:58 PM UTC The [Trump Administration](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/donald-trump/) is proposing requiring all government workers to sign [nondisclosure agreements](https://time.com/5518135/donald-trump-non-disclosure-agreements/) that would prohibit them from sharing sensitive information, according to a [draft notice](https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-10471.pdf) 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. "In much of the private sector, employees handling sensitive business or customer information are routinely required to sign confidentiality agreements, and the federal government should not be held to a lower standard," OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement Tuesday. "Americans should be able to trust that their personal data and sensitive government information are being handled responsibly. This proposal reinforces accountability across the federal workforce while helping agencies better protect against unauthorized disclosures." The proposed rule would not replace or nullify existing NDAs government workers may be required to sign per their agencies’ requirements, according to the draft, which also noted that workers would retain the “right to make disclosures authorized by law.” It does not specify what penalties might be sought for workers who release confidential information deemed to be covered by the NDAs. Existing laws, including the [Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act](https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/senate-bill/743) from 2012, bar NDAs from limiting whistleblowers’ ability to report cases of government fraud, waste, or abuse. OPM told TIME in a statement that “the consequences for violating the agreement hasn’t been determined, this is still up for public comment.” A 30-day public comment period for the proposed rule will begin on Wednesday, when the draft notice will be published. In the draft notice, the agency cited several recent leaks that have occurred during the second Trump Administration. In one instance last year, it said, unauthorized disclosures of immigration enforcement plans by employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “impeded enforcement of Federal law and put the lives of Federal agents in danger.” In another instance referenced in the draft, The New York _Times_ and Washington _Post_ learned of confidential information relating to the U.S. attack on Venezuela in January that led to the capture of its leader, [Nicolás Maduro](https://time.com/7342941/venezuela-maduro-bombing-trump-delta-force/). OPM said, citing reporting from [Semafor](https://www.semafor.com/article/01/03/2026/new-york-times-washington-post-held-off-on-reporting-venezuela-raid), that “these leaks put the lives of members of the armed forces at risk, leading news organizations to delay ‘publishing what they knew to avoid endangering US troops.’” Trump’s Administrations have attempted to quell the flow of sensitive or confidential information out of its agencies using NDAs before. During his first term, Trump [reportedly](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-nondisclosure-agreements-came-with-him-to-the-white-house/2018/03/18/226f4522-29ee-11e8-b79d-f3d931db7f68%5Fstory.html) had his senior staff sign NDAs. More recently, in April of last year the Veterans Affairs Department required employees working on plans to cut tens of thousands of its staffers amid the Administration’s broader efforts to cut the federal workforce to sign NDAs. (Those plans were later cancelled.) The Washington _Post_ [reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/10/01/pentagon-pete-hegseth-crackdown-leaks/) months later, in October, that the Pentagon planned to impose NDAs for its workers, along with random polygraph tests. Trump’s Administrations have also brought lawsuits against multiple people they have claimed disclosed information that was classified or covered by an NDA. During Trump’s first term, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued former national security adviser John Bolton in 2020 over his book "The Room Where it Happened," alleging it contained “classified national security information.” Later that year, the DOJ sued First Lady Melania Trump’s former adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff over her tell-all book “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady,” claiming she breached an NDA signed in 2017\. The department dropped both lawsuits after President Joe Biden took office, as well as a criminal inquiry it had opened into the publication of Bolton’s book. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/05/26/trump-administration-federal-workers-ndas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/05/26/trump-administration-federal-workers-ndas/"},"headline":"What to Know About the Trump Administration's Proposal for Government-Wide NDAs","datePublished":"2026-05-27T12:58:04.770Z","dateModified":"2026-05-26T20:16:35.000Z","description":"The Administration said the proposed rule aims “to safeguard non-public, confidential, or proprietary information.”","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/05/26/trump-administration-federal-workers-ndas/","keywords":["Trump Administration","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51163e2d5d28b7a4/6a15f053295af9651e4aab22/GettyImages-1146937758.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Connor Greene","jobTitle":"Editorial Fellow","url":"https://time.com/author/connor-greene/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51163e2d5d28b7a4/6a15f053295af9651e4aab22/GettyImages-1146937758.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-1146937758.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Sarah Silbiger—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/trump-administration/","name":"Trump Administration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/05/26/trump-administration-federal-workers-ndas/","name":"What to Know About the Trump Administration's Proposal for Government-Wide NDAs"}}]}] ```