Public Servants Don’t Get to Hide Behind NDAs

Dear Representative, I am writing to oppose the use of government-wide non-disclosure agreements imposed on federal employees, contractors, and political appointees as a condition of service. These instruments are being deployed to suppress lawful disclosure of public business, and they are incompatible with the constitutional role of a public servant. Government employees and elected representatives are not private citizens acting on behalf of a private enterprise. They are public servants. The work they do is the public’s work. The records they create are, with narrow and statutorily defined exceptions, the public’s records. A blanket NDA regime inverts that relationship — it treats the citizenry as outsiders to their own government and treats officials as employees of an entity whose interests are distinct from, and superior to, the public’s. The legitimate mechanisms for protecting sensitive information already exist: classification authorities under Executive Order 13526, the Privacy Act, FOIA exemptions, the Trade Secrets Act, and agency-specific statutes governing law enforcement and intelligence material. These frameworks were built deliberately, with congressional oversight, judicial review, and whistleblower carve-outs. A sweeping NDA bypasses all of that. It chills lawful disclosure to Inspectors General, to Congress, and to the press. It conflicts directly with the Whistleblower Protection Act and the Lloyd–La Follette Act, which guarantees federal employees the right to communicate with Congress. I am asking you to: • Publicly oppose any government-wide NDA requirement for federal employees, contractors, or appointees. • Co-sponsor or support legislation voiding any such NDA as a matter of law and clarifying that statutory whistleblower and congressional-communication protections supersede any executive-branch confidentiality instrument. • Demand from the relevant agencies a full accounting of which NDAs are currently in force, who signed them, and under what authority. Public service is not a private contract. Please act accordingly. Sincerely, A voting constituent