This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.  It was originally published at Balls and Strikes.

Last week, President Donald Trump’s Office of Personnel Management published a draft of a sweeping nondisclosure agreement that the administration hopes to impose on millions of federal workers. The proposed NDA would bar employees at federal agencies from revealing any “sensitive” information that is “not currently publicly available” and “should not be disclosed” under any applicable law or “government-wide policy.” Employees would remain obligated to keep quiet for five years after they leave federal service, unless they get “written permission” to do otherwise from an authorized agency official.

The proposal’s demand for secrecy is inherently in tension with democracy’s demand for transparency. And Congress has already passed several laws that aim to strike the right balance between the government’s responsibility to safeguard some private........

© Talking Points Memo