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.

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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 through their work. OPM said the proposed NDA would not create new substantive restrictions on employee speech, but instead establish a standardized process for federal workers to acknowledge existing legal and regulatory obligations regarding confidential information.

Kupor said the proposal of NDAs is to encourage open and honest dialogue in meetings. 

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«We’re just trying to avoid situations where people feel like they won’t express an opinion in a meeting because they are worried that’s going to show up on the front page of the newspaper tomorrow. I just don’t think that helps us actually run the organizations on behalf of the American people,» said Kupor.

Critics have argued the agency is expanding oversight in an effort to control damaging narratives emerging from inside the administration.

Gilbert Employment Law, which specializes in federal employment issues, partner Kevin Owen told the Government Executive that «OPM is now trying to become this super personnel office that centralizes its authority over all federal employees, ostensibly at the direction of the White House. By now controlling how federal employees are even able to communicate about matters of political concern, it’s one further step toward enacting a spoils system and making the civil service a political arm of the White House.»

The proposal also stated that the agreement would explicitly preserve employees’ rights to make disclosures authorized under federal law, including protected whistleblower complaints.

Kupor said the proposal of NDAs is to encourage open and honest dialogue in meetings. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

«I think people are thinking [it’s] another way to get rid of people, or we’re trying to squelch people from saying what they want,» said Kupor. «That’s the farthest thing from the truth. People can say whatever they want. The issue is, if we’re having a conversation at work … I think it’s very reasonable for us to say you shouldn’t go basically publish what is otherwise essentially a deliberative process of conversation out there.»

Kupor said the administration should be able to achieve discussions without media leaks and, once it’s decided, journalists can FOIA the information.

«People can appeal that to the [U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board] and forward and stuff like that. That’s how we work today. We’re not taking away any rights anybody has for any other kind of workplace related adverse actions,» said Kupor.  «If you read the NDAs, it’s very expressed that nothing here interferes with traditional whistleblower issues with people going to the inspector general.»

Kupor said he is unsure whether the proposal was discussed during the first Trump administration or under previous administrations but argued the rapid expansion of the media landscape has made agencies more vulnerable to leaks.

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The NDA proposal entered in the Federal Register cites recent events such as the Venezuela raid and the doxing of ICE agents as justification for the measure. (John Moore/Getty Images)

«Particularly with the rise of social media and everything else, [federal employees] feel like they want to help people outside the world, understand what we’re doing. And none of this is intended to like to stop that. It’s just intended to allow us to have an open, honest conversation among folks. And if people want to be citizen journalists, they can do that,» said Kupor.

With the Trump administration already facing a series of legal challenges to its policy agenda, Kupor said he expects the NDA proposal could draw scrutiny as well.

«Unfortunately, there are lots of lawyers and organizations who make a living out of basically finding whatever they don’t like with the Trump administration and suing. But in this case I feel very, very comfortable,» he said.

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The proposal is open for public comment on or before June 26, according to OPM.

Ultimatum

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The intense media scrutiny and Republican attacks facing Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner of Maine over his controversial and inflammatory past online comments and his now-removed but well-publicized tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol don’t appear to be slowing him down.

A new public opinion poll shows Platner holding an upper single-digit lead over longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in a race that is among a handful that will likely decide if the GOP holds its slim 53-47 majority in the Senate in this year’s midterm elections.

Platner, a progressive candidate backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, stands at 51% support among likely Maine voters, with Collins at 42%, in a Pine Tree State poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire. Six percent of respondents were undecided, with 2% backing other candidates.

The survey is the latest public opinion poll to indicate Platner, an oyster farmer and Army and Marine veteran who served in combat in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, leading Collins, a moderate Republican who is seeking a sixth six-year term in the Senate representing left-leaning Maine.

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Ninety-one percent of Democrats questioned said they’d vote for Platner in the general election, with 87% of Republicans backing Collins. The senator held a slight 47%-44% edge over Platner for the support of independents.

The poll was released two weeks ahead of Maine’s primary.

Platner is considered the Democrats’ presumptive nominee after two-term Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who was backed by Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and other establishment leaders, suspended her campaign a month ago. Mills cited fundraising concerns and polling woes for her decision to end her bid. But the governor’s name will remain on the primary ballot.

According to the poll, Platner stands at 76% support for the Democratic nomination, with Mills at 10% and longshot Senate contender, David Costello of Brunswick, who spent decades working in state and federal government, at 3%.

Collins faces no challengers for the Republican Senate nomination.

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Platner, who advocates an economically populist agenda as he takes aim at corporate influences and advocates for the working class as he runs for the Senate, has been criticized by Collins and other Republicans as too extreme for Maine.

«I believe that will be the conclusion of Maine voters. But, obviously, I don’t take anything for granted,» Collins said when asked in a Fox News Digital interview earlier this month if Platner was too far to the left.

But Platner, in a Fox News Digital interview a week later, argued, «What’s radical is somebody like Susan Collins, who, for decades now, has made sure that we pass policies that are going to help corporations and billionaires to the detriment of working people, supporting over and over and over again, illegal and insane foreign wars.»

Platner, amid a slew of media stories, has come under fire from Republicans in recent weeks over his past controversial comments from last decade, after he returned from combat tours of duty, as well as more recent comments earlier this decade, that he made on Reddit.

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Platner apologized for his controversial Reddit posts after they made headlines last fall soon after he launched his Senate campaign.

But confronted by Fox News Digital last week near his home in Maine, Platner declined to apologize both to voters and a Purple Heart recipient when asked about a deleted Reddit post where he said the wounded soldier «didn’t deserve to live.»

Meanwhile, Platner has said he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007 while drinking with fellow Marines stationed in Croatia. He said that he covered up the tattoo with a new design after learning last year that it resembled a Nazi symbol.

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It’s not just Republicans who are taking aim at Platner over the comments and the tattoo. A few Democrats are also speaking out. Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts this week reiterated his criticism of Platner.

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«As I said months ago, I find Platner’s Nazi tattoo and his commentary about it personally disqualifying,» Auchincloss wrote Tuesday in a social media post. «If it were me, I’d vote for someone else in the Maine Democratic primary.»

The Pine Tree Poll was conducted May 21-25, with an overall sampling error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.