We filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service this week to force the release of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) the agency has required employees to sign.
Back in April, we asked for these records. Because the Forest Service missed its legal deadline to respond to our Freedom of Information Act request, we are going to court.
This isn’t the Forest Service’s first NDA problem. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s own Inspector General found that Forest Service NDAs were missing legally required whistleblower protections. Although the agency promised to fix the problem, we still don’t know if it has.
This is part of PEER’s larger effort to ensure the government doesn’t turn into a black box, and that employees aren’t intimated into staying silent when they see wrongdoing. The stakes go beyond the Forest Service. The Trump administration is now pushing to extend the use of NDAs across the entire federal government — a proposal we’ve called on the Office of Personnel Management to withdraw.
In the coming weeks, you’ll hear a lot more about our work to reveal the government’s efforts to intimidate public employees. The public has a right to know what employees are being asked to sign.
Onward!
Tim Whitehouse
Executive Director
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