Following recent “unauthorized disclosures,” the Office of Personnel Management on Tuesday announced its intention of drafting a governmentwide NDA that agencies can implement at their discretion for workers who have access to sensitive information, such as personnel records and operational plans.

“OPM believes that a standard NDA form will promote consistency across government, better protect confidential information and better inform federal employees of their rights and obligations regarding confidential information,” the proposal reads.

OPM’s proposal was published Wednesday in the Federal Register and opened a 30-day public comment period through June 26.

The OPM said the move follows several recent leaks of internal government information.

“There have been several recent instances in which internal agency communications related to rulemaking and policy development were disclosed without authorization,” the proposal says.

“Such disclosures risk chilling candid interagency feedback, disrupting orderly decision-making and weakening trust within and among federal agencies,” the proposal continues.

The draft lists several examples, with one dating back to 2022 when a Supreme Court opinion overturning abortion rights was leaked to a reporter, prompting the Court to implement its own NDA in 2024.

The proposal cited a 2025 incident in which several Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security workers released immigration enforcement plans when unauthorized to do so.

More recently, in early January 2026, the proposal also claims that the New York Times and Washington Post received unauthorized disclosures from federal employees about the planned U.S. raid on Venezuela before it began, which prompted the organizations to postpone “publishing what they knew to avoid endangering US troops.”

The New York Times disputes that assertion.

“Contrary to some claims, however, The Times did not have verified details about the pending operation to capture Maduro or a story prepared, nor did we withhold publication at the request of the Trump administration,” the New York Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn wrote in January 2026 in response to questions from readers.

OPM’s announcement comes less than two months after President Donald Trump vowed to find the “leaker” behind the release of information involving a missing U.S. airman from a downed fighter jet in Iran. In an early April press conference, Trump did not specify which media company received the leak but did threaten to put the reporter in jail if they, or their organization, did not disclose their source.

OPM previously published a separate rule in June 2025 addressing federal employee “suitability and fitness” requirements with nondisclosure requirements.

The draft says that the NDA will be an “Optional Form,” allowing federal agencies to decide for themselves whether or not to use the agreement. If an agency decides to use the NDA, it would be given to new hires as well as current employees.

Even though the draft says that the proposal is not meant to implement “new substantive restrictions on employee speech or disclosure rights,” union leaders have criticized the move, calling it unnecessary and warning it could silence workers.

“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,” Everett Kelley, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, said in a statement.

Doreen Greenwald, the president of the second largest federal employee union, National Treasury Employees Union, said there was “no basis” for this action and that the union would oppose the proposal.

“Existing law protects our nation’s secrets. Non-disclosure agreements would preemptively chill First Amendment-protected speech and dissuade protected whistleblowing activity,” Greenwald said in a release.

There are currently over two million federal employees, according to OPM, with the largest share of workers serving in the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Thursday, the chambers’ top Democrats — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both from New York — asked for a meeting on the looming fiscal issues early next week, to stave off a budget crisis.

“The government funding issue must be resolved in a bipartisan way,” the pair wrote. “That is the only viable path forward …

“It is past time you reveal your plans to meet the needs of the American people. Otherwise, it is clear that you have abandoned bipartisanship altogether and are preparing to shut down the government.”

Lawmakers have until Sept. 30 to pass a new budget for the next fiscal year (which starts Oct. 1) or approve a short-term extension of current agency funding levels.

Failure to do either will force a partial shutdown of most government activities until a new funding deal is reached.

For the Department of Defense, that will mean shuttering of some non-essential base offices and training. Troops will still be expected to report for duty, but their paychecks may be delayed.

At the Department of Veterans Affairs, most hospital and benefits processing offices will remain open, thanks to advance funding approved for the agency in the past. But some information hotlines will be shut down, and other non-critical services will halt during the political impasse.

Neither Republican leader offered an immediate response to the Democratic leaders’ request. Both men have said that resolving the funding issue will be their top priority when Congress returns from its summer recess next week.

Although GOP lawmakers hold a majority in both chambers, several prominent Republicans have suggested they may not support a short-term budget deal, preferring to return to regular order in the appropriations process. But the majority of funding bills still have significant work to be completed before final passage.

That would mean at least some Democratic votes will likely be needed to approve any funding package and avoid a shutdown.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump said he would meet with Schumer and Jeffries to discuss potential points of compromise, but added that “it’s almost a waste of time to meet because they never approve anything.”

Defense Department leaders have warned about the potential detrimental impact of a government shutdown on military operations, even if troops and essential personnel remain on the job. They said that shuttering support services for military families and disrupting long-term procurement plans undermines force readiness initiatives.

The last major government shutdown occurred in December 2018 during the first Trump administration and lasted for 35 days. That dispute, which centered on immigration policy and funding, did not include the Departments of Defense or Veterans Affairs, but did result in delayed paychecks for tens of thousands of U.S. Coast Guard personnel.

Lawmakers are expected to return to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Sept. 2.

Late last week, the Office of Personnel Management announced in an email to federal workers that they had canceled plans for the 2025 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, typically conducted each spring. Officials had said for months they were revising the poll to better focus questions on key workplace issues and not extraneous topics, such as diversity programs.

The survey is mandated under federal code and provides an annual snapshot of employee satisfaction. Administration officials have not said whether they will provide other avenues for tracking those metrics.

Earlier this summer, in response to questions about workforce changes, Veterans Affairs officials said they would conduct their own all-employee survey in conjunction with the FEVS.

However, after last week’s decision, VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz said that his department “is following OPM’s lead on this issue and will not be conducting the VA All-Employee Survey this year.”

He also dismissed concerns that the absence of the polling data would ignore concerns within the department’s workforce.

“VA employees are happy the department is fixing many of the problems left by the Biden administration and is making improvements across the agency,” he said in a statement.

The VA All-Employee Survey has been conducted every year since 2006. In 2012, the results ranked the department as the second-worst large federal agency to work for, out of 19 departments. By 2024, that ranking had risen to fifth-best.

About 72% of VA employees surveyed said they were satisfied with their jobs in 2024, up from about 55% a decade before. Officials from President Joe Biden’s administration frequently cited the survey as evidence that they were making workforce improvements throughout VA.

Whether this year’s survey would have shown continued optimism or new problems will remain unknown. Union officials and critics of President Donald Trump have strongly objected to a host of workforce reforms by his administration in recent months, including trimming nearly 30,000 jobs from the department payroll since January.

Earlier this month, VA Secretary Doug Collins announced plans sever ties with most federal employee unions, terminating their collective bargaining contracts.

About 450,000 federal employees currently work at VA hospitals, benefits centers and other offices. In the past, nearly three-fourths of the workforce participated in the employee surveys.

The move affects members of the American Federation of Government Employees, the AFL-CIO (AFGE), the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

AFGE alone represents about 300,000 employees working for VA. About 80% of the department’s roughly 450,000-person staff are union members.

Department officials said the move was made to “make it easier for VA leaders to promote high-performing employees, hold poor performers accountable, and improve benefits and services to America’s veterans.”

In a statement, VA Secretary Doug Collins attacked the unions as inefficient and harmful to veterans’ care.

“Too often, unions that represent VA employees fight against the best interests of veterans while protecting and rewarding bad workers,” Collins said. “We’re making sure VA resources and employees are singularly focused on the job we were sent here to do: providing top-notch care and service to those who wore the uniform.”

Members of President Donald Trump’s administration have fought with union officials for months. In April, VA stopped withholding union dues from most employee paychecks, citing an executive order excluding some federal agencies from labor-management relations programs.

Wednesday’s move does not impact unions representing 4,000 VA police officers, firefighters and security guards. Officials said the executive order does not apply to those positions.

Union leaders for months have protested against proposed cuts at VA and other federal agencies, arguing the smaller staffs will hurt delivery of benefits and health care. They’ve also accused Collins of working to “privatize” VA services by sending more money for medical appointments into civilian hospitals and medical offices, rather than VA clinics.

The unions have also filed numerous lawsuits against the president’s proposed changes to the federal bureaucracy. On Monday, a federal appeals court paused a preliminary injunction that had blocked department heads from making changes to collective bargaining agreements, allowing Wednesday’s contract terminations to move ahead.

At the time, AFGE National President Everett Kelley called the ruling “a setback for fundamental rights in America” and promised continued opposition to Trump’s proposals.

In a statement after Wednesday’s announcement, Kelley criticized Collins for attacking VA workers’ rights.

“[The] decision to rip up the negotiated union contract for majority of its workforce is another clear example of retaliation against AFGE members for speaking out against the illegal, anti-worker, and anti-veteran policies of this administration,” he said.

“We don’t apologize for protecting veteran healthcare and will continue to fight for our members and the veterans they care for.”

Officials from National Nurses United accused the Trump adminstration of “waging class warfare against working people of America” and similarly promised continued legal challenges.

“This president has made it clear he has no respect for the Constitution, but we believe strongly that our right to join together to collectively bargain is constitutionally protected,” the group said in a statement. “It cannot be swept away through an overreach of an executive order based on spurious claims.”

VA officials said that in addition to eliminating unneeded restrictions on hiring and firing policies, breaking union contracts will free up more than 187,000 square feet of office space currently being used by group representatives.

At the start of 2025, federal unions represented more than 1.3 million government workers across a host of agencies.

The conflict is the latest chapter in the ongoing story of VA’s federal workforce, and what it will look like in coming years. After President Joe Biden’s administration heavily emphasized building up the department’s employee base in response to higher demands for health care and benefits, President Donald Trump’s White House has reversed that course, pushing for significant cuts and less aggressive recruiting efforts.

On Monday, the House finalized legislation to prohibit payments from the department’s Critical Skill Incentive programs from being awarded to Senior Executive Service employees, in reaction to improper cash awards handed out during the last presidential administration. The measure is expected to be signed into law by President Donald Trump in coming days.

The bill comes in response to still ongoing criticism of Biden-era appointees improperly using the cash awards for senior officials rather than hard-to-fill specialists.

Bill sponsor Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas and chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, called the past awards an “abuse of taxpayer dollars” and said the move is needed to ensure integrity and transparency in the department’s bonus programming.

In a related move, House Veterans’ Affairs Committee leaders on Tuesday held a hearing reviewing the department’s recruitment, relocation and retention incentive payment practices, better known as 3R bonuses.

VA leaders awarded about $1.2 billion in those incentives to roughly 134,000 employees from the start of fiscal 2020 to the end of fiscal 2023, according to the VA Inspector General’s office. Officials estimated that about $341 million in bonuses were not properly documented or justified, and about $5 million in awards were improperly handed out to ineligible individuals.

Republican lawmakers said that program is in need of significant reforms too.

“When someone receives a relocation incentive and never actually relocates, that is wrong and a clear waste of taxpayer dollars,” said Rep. Jennifer Kiggans, R-Va., chairwoman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s panel on oversight. “These are taxpayer dollars set aside for veterans, and for far too long they have been carelessly handled.”

Trump administration supporters praised recent efforts to cut waste and inefficiency within the department. Tracey Therit, VA’s chief human capital officer, said the bonus programs are a critical tool in filling in-demand specialties, but also promised continued reforms within the human resources and financial oversight offices to improve bonus decisions.

“We are confident that the steps we have already taken and continue to take will strengthen our incentive program governance and oversight, leading to more effective outcomes and better service to the nation’s veterans,” she said.

But Democratic lawmakers said the work is less focused on efficiency and more focused on shedding government workers through active cuts and passive messaging.

Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., noted that VA leaders awarded recruiting incentives more than 20,000 times in 2024. Halfway through this year, that total is about 7,000. Recruitment incentives were awarded more than 6,000 times in 2024 but have been used about 1,000 times this year.

“It’s not that VA employees are less meritorious than they were [last year],” Ramirez noted. “No matter what VA employees do, they will never receive 3R awards, because the Trump Administration wants them to leave. They want every employee to be pushed out so they can decimate VA’s workforce and destroy it in order to justify privatizing the VA.”

VA officials expect to reduce the department’s workforce by roughly 30,000 employees this fiscal year, a move that has drawn the ire of union leaders and administration critics.

Union officials testified at the hearing that they are already seeing shortfalls in key areas like nursing and appointment scheduling, areas that will hurt veterans benefits.

VA leaders have disputed those assertions in recent months, insisting that cuts to the department bureaucracy can be done without impacting customer service. They said they are continuing to recruit for critical health care and benefits processing posts, and have dismissed concerns from critics regarding perceived emerging gaps in the workforce.

Senate leaders this week are expected to advance their plans for a $435 billion VA budget next fiscal year. The appropriations bill represents an $83 billion boost from Congress’ approved spending plan for VA in fiscal 2025, even with the planned staffing reductions.

The bill’s passage — by a 221-209 margin, with only five Democrats backing the measure — sends the national security budget debate over to the Senate, where appropriators still have not unveiled the parameters of their spending plans for next year.

The Defense Department is currently operating this fiscal year under a modified continuing resolution, with some additional funding for military programs and purchases. Lawmakers are hopeful that won’t happen again next year, but the slow pace of budget work thus far leaves only about six weeks of session work left before a possible partial government shutdown if the appropriations bills aren’t finalized.

The House spending plan was largely drafted before Pentagon leaders unveiled their detailed budgetary requests for fiscal 2026 just last month. President Donald Trump has touted that outline as a “$1 trillion defense budget,” but that total includes additional one-time funds approved by Congress as part of a separate reconciliation measure.

As such, the House plan for the base defense budget represents a small decrease over current fiscal year military spending, a point that Democrats and some Republican lawmakers have lamented.

But Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, praised the funding plan as “providing our men and women in uniform with the resources they need to keep America safe.”

The bill supports a 3.8% pay raise for servicemembers next year, matching the federal formula for the annual prescribed pay boost. It includes $2.6 billion for hypersonics programs and $13 billion for missile defense programs in support of Trump’s Golden Dome effort.

The measure sets aside $8.5 billion for 69 F-35 fighters, $3.8 billion for B-21 procurement, $2.7 billion for 15 KC-46s and $1.2 billion for four E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft. Another $37 billion would go to Navy shipbuilding efforts, including procurement of one Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine and two Virginia-class fast attack submarines.

Under the plan, the Defense Department civilian workforce would be cut by about 45,000 individuals at a savings of $3.6 billion, a provision that drew strong objections from Democratic lawmakers.

Critics also attacked the bill’s social issue provisions, including language prohibiting military health care facilities from providing abortion services, bans on transgender medical care and surgeries, and elimination of diversity and equity programs.

“These poison pill riders will not go unnoticed by our troops,” said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., ranking member on the appropriations committee’s defense panel. “They will impact recruitment and retention.”

Passage of the defense budget bill was delayed for much of the week by unrelated legislative floor fights in the House, and could be complicated in the Senate by similar, broader fights over federal spending and program cuts.

House lawmakers are expected to shift focus in coming days to the annual defense authorization bill — legislation which sets Defense Department policy and spending priorities for the upcoming year, but does not actually appropriate the funds for those goals — but a full floor debate on that measure is unlikely to happen before the chamber’s August recess.

The one-year American Service Fellowship program is being run through the Harvard Kennedy School, which focuses on public policy issues. Officials expect at least half of the new class to be veterans and the rest to be made up of individuals with seven years of experience in public service jobs.

In a letter sent to students and faculty Thursday morning, Dean Jeremy Weinstein said the new fellowship is launching now “because in this moment of political division, unprecedented challenges, and declining in government, there has never been a more important time to invest in the next generation of America’s public servants.”

The move comes as school officials are fighting a public battle with President Donald Trump over cuts to research funding and limits on foreign student enrollment.

In addition, a White House investigation last month accused the university of “violent violation” of the Civil Rights Act, saying school leaders have failed to prevent anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students on campus.

Harvard has challenged those decisions and claims in court. Thursday’s program announcement doesn’t directly reference the widespread public servant layoffs directed by Trump at various federal agencies, but did note that the effort’s aim is “celebrating America’s veterans and public servants.”

Recipients will receive $100,000 through the fellowship, which will cover all tuition, fees and an additional stipend for cost-of-living issues. School officials will waive any application fees for individuals who submit entries to the program.

The pilot program will be funded by “philanthropic donations raised specifically for this fellowship,” officials said.

Individuals interested in applying for the fellowship can submit applications through the Harvard Kennedy School website.

Already, about 17,000 VA jobs have been vacated since Jan. 1 through a combination of deferred resignations, retirements, normal attrition and department hiring freezes, officials said. Another 12,000 posts are expected to be cleared out over the next two and a half months.

VA Secretary Doug Collins in a statement said that because of those significant workforce reductions — equalling a 6% decrease in the roughly 484,000 VA workforce last fall — department leaders are no longer discussing the idea of a department Reduction In Force process.

“Since March, we’ve been conducting a holistic review of the department centered on reducing bureaucracy and improving services to veterans,” Collins said in a statement. “As a result of our efforts, VA is headed in the right direction — both in terms of staff levels and customer service.”

A VA spokesman said the department is not looking to make any additional “major changes” to staffing levels beyond that 30,000 cut. Previously, officials had said they may eliminate up to 80,000 department jobs in coming months.

For the last several months, department leaders and members of President Donald Trump’s White House staff have insisted that workforce cuts are needed to trim down the federal bureaucracy to reduce spending and improve efficiency.

However, Democratic lawmakers and union leaders have strongly objected to those claims, saying the increased medical and benefits workload of the department mandates more staffing, not less.

They have also said that hiring freezes and staff cuts have begun to hurt veterans benefits, particularly in tasks indirectly related to medical care, such as appointment scheduling and medical supply delivery.

But Collins and top VA officials have said the department has multiple safeguards in place to ensure that staff reductions do not impact veteran care or benefits, including exempting more than 350,000 positions from the federal hiring freeze.

Department officials also pointed to positive trends in benefits processing and medical care in recent months, continuing trends from the last few years.

Collins said in his statement Monday that the staff reductions thus far have “resulted in a host of new ideas for better serving veterans that we will continue to pursue.”

Department leaders said they are looking at “duplicative and costly administrative functions that can be centralized or restructured” for additional workforce savings, as well as reducing some of the 274 separate call centers the department runs.

The post is one of the top leadership roles at the department, but was unveiled quietly on Monday through official nomination correspondence with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Brazell would be the permanent replacement to Josh Jacobs, who stepped down from the role at the start of the new administration in January.

Currently, Margarita Devlin is serving as the Acting Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits, and performing the duties of the vacant under secretary role.

Brazell was named a senior advisor to Secretary Doug Collins earlier this year. She previously worked in the department as principal executive director and chief acquisition officer for VA’s Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction during the first Trump administration.

In that role, she oversaw department contract administration and supply chain management, managing a budget over $30 billion and supervising more than 1,700 employees.

Her new role will hold significantly more responsibility, with a staff of more than 30,000 Veterans Benefits Administration employees and a portfolio of dozens of different department benefits programs.

Brazell is an Army veteran who also worked as a defense contractor and a Defense Department employee.

Her role as a senior advisor to Collins is likely to draw scrutiny from Senate Democrats, who have been critical of department moves in recent months to dismiss probationary employees and look for significant cuts to the VA workforce.

White House officials also nominated Alan Boehme to serve as Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Information and Technology, the replacement for Kurt DelBene. Boehme previously worked as Chief Technology Officer for the H&M Group, a fashion and design company.

Senate officials have not scheduled a confirmation hearing date for either of the new nominees.

The move, which follows a government-wide mandate for investigations into discriminatory practices against Christian beliefs, drew immediate condemnation from Democratic lawmakers for showing favoritism towards a single religion.

“While religious discrimination must be forbidden and fought, this internal VA memo lacks any factual basis or rationale,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “It raises the specter of dividing the veteran community and favoring some religions over others.”

In a department-wide memo distributed Monday, VA Secretary Doug Collins said that a new department task force will “review all instances of anti-Christian bias” throughout VA operations. That includes “adverse responses to requests for religious exemption” and “any observations of mistreatment for not participating in events or activities inconsistent with Christian views.”

In the past, some employees have claimed discrimination for being required to provide treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals or birth control medication to patients, claiming religious objections. Advocates have countered that veterans should not have their medical options curtailed because of individuals’ personal beliefs.

Collins memo also asks employees to report “any mistreatment or reprimand issued in response to displays of Christian imagery or symbols.”

In February, Collins ordered that displays of flags not in keeping with VA messaging — including LGBTQ+ Pride flags and other advocacy banners — be removed from department workspaces and common areas. It is not clear if flags with Christian imagery will now be exempted from that policy.

In addition to his VA leadership role, Collins serves as an Air Force Reserve Chaplain and is a practicing Southern Baptist.

President Donald Trump in February ordered VA and 15 other agencies to establish the anti-Christian-bias task forces to “end the anti-Christian weaponization of government.” He claimed that past administrations’ support for abortion rights and diversity efforts amounted to an attack on Christian beliefs.

Democratic lawmakers have disputed that. Blumenthal said that the new task force undermines efforts to ensure all veterans receive care and respect.

“The First Amendment ensures that all religions and faiths are treated equally, with full freedom of worship,” he said.

Officials from the advocacy group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State have called Trump’s anti-Christian task force “a Christian nationalist crusade” and accused the administration of using religious freedom misinformation “to justify bigotry and discrimination.”