The Trump administration wants all current and future federal employees to sign non-disclosure agreements, part of a continuing crackdown on leaks to the media.
The notice in the Federal Register from the Office of Personnel Management posted Tuesday asked for comment on a draft NDA to be used by federal agencies for “both new and existing employees.”
“The form is intended to document Federal employees’ acknowledgment of, and agreement to 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 notice said.
The notice sought comment on several questions, including whether the NDA should cover only unclassified information and what appropriate actions, if any, agencies should consider for new or current employees who choose not to sign the agreement.
The OPM noted “several recent instances” where internal agency communications related to rulemaking and policy development were disclosed without authorization. It also discussed specific instances in which federal employees at the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security disclosed information about planned immigration enforcement actions without authorization.
In one case, the New York Times and Washington Post received unauthorized information on the U.S. raid on Venezuela this past January and delayed “publishing what they knew to avoid endangering U.S. troops,” the OPM request for comment said.
Trump loves NDAs. They’re wothless for what he wants, to hide criminality, but are an effective intimidation tool.
They really out here thinking that NDA’s will stop ANONYMOUS leaks?! That wouldn’t even work as a deterrent.
I thought that was what classification standards were for.
Good! The LAST thing We’d want from the MOST TRANSPARENT Tax Payer funded Administration in HISTORY is Transparency! I’m an Alpha Wolf!
How about you stop being the universe’s most massive cunts? Hope that helps.
It sure would be a lot simpler if they’d just stop being gigantic pieces of shit.
I think if such a thing happens we’ll know. We’ll know it’s officially over, Democracy that is.
A criminal trying to prevent people from learning about his crimes?
If you didn’t have so much to hide there wouldn’t be leaks dumb shit!
An argument could be made that they are employees of the American people, so there shouldn’t be any “secrets”. We pay their salaries. Are you allowed to keep business secrets from the owner of the business who hired you?
You’re trying to appeal to ethical discrepencies with trump??? Oh…oh I have just a whole lot of bad news for you…
…so much bad news…
Gee I wonder where they got such a dumbfuck idea from.
Trump admin: I KNOW WHAT’LL STOP THOSE TATTLE TALES, A PIECE OF PAPER!
This is hilariously meaningless. Federal employees have all already agreed to this by signing their employment paperwork.
There is also required annual training, that every federal employee must retake every year that refreshes their “legal obligations to safeguard non-public, confidential, or proprietary information, created or obtained through their official duties.”
That description of the NDA could easily have been taken from stock language for any employment contract. This just feels like another excuse to weaken job protections for civil servants.
Yep. 20 years ago I applied for a screener job with the TSA, just to take the test to see if you qualify you have to spend time going over the NDA and understand what you’re signing.
I know for a fact that everything I saw is now outdated and useless, yet I still have about 55 years left before I can talk about it. And before anyone asks, no I didn’t see anything special, just overly security conscious government B.S.
There’s already a classification system and standards for how things are handled. Here’s a hint: resort bathrooms are not the proper place to store TS/SCI. Maybe start to get that and other opsec right like not using signal chats first?
isn’t that what diapers are for?
