Washington D.C. | June 30, 2026 – On Friday, June 27, National Whistleblower Center (NWC) submitted a formal comment to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) regarding their proposed rulemaking that would allow Federal agencies to require their employees to sign a Confidential Government Information Nondisclosure Agreements (NDA). These NDAs would forbid federal employees from disclosing any non-public information.
In the comment, NWC expressed firm opposition to the OPM’s NDA rulemaking, as it not only violates the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) protecting federal employees, as implemented by the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA), but also violates the First Amendment rights of federal employees and the media.
“If the proposed NDA is adopted, it will send a chilling effect to every federal employee and prevent the public from learning about whistleblower disclosures that could have been made to the news media,” said David Colapinto, a whistleblower attorney and Co-Founder of NWC.
NWC’s rejection of the proposed NDA emphasized the NDA’s chilling impact on whistleblowing, an integral component of ensuring democratic accountability across the government. As Colapinto emphasized, “The government often ignores whistleblower disclosures, which requires federal employees to contact the news media to gain attention to complaints of wrongdoing… without the protection of whistleblower disclosures to the news media, countless scandals and violations of law will be swept under the rug.”
Colapinto is available for comment. For more information, contact Jeana Lee, NWC’s Program Manager, at jeana.lee@whistleblowers.org.
