The White House Office of Personnel Management is seeking public comment on its proposal to implement non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, for future and current federal employees.
According to a Wednesday Federal Register notice, the proposal is meant to ensure employees “comply with, current legal obligations to safeguard non-public, confidential, or proprietary information, created or obtained through their official duties, while expressly preserving the right to make disclosures authorized by law.”
The Office of Personnel Management is taking comments on the NDA requirement between now and June 26.
Among other things, the OPM notice seeks public feedback on what scope of information should be covered by the NDA and whether it should cover only unclassified information? “Does the NDA clearly communicate the types of information that would be subject to non-disclosure requirement,” according to the notice.
“OPM continues its efforts to silence federal employees,” said American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) President Everett Kelley in a Tuesday press statement.
“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.,” Kelley said. “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 labor union president’s statement goes on to say that U.S. agencies already have policies and procedures in place for preventing the unauthorized release of classified or privileged information.