The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has been strongly criticized for its overuse of secrecy and lack of transparency, is now pushing to lock down information among congressional offices. DHS officials have asked congressional aides to sign nondisclosure agreements that would prohibit them from publicly disclosing information from DHS even though the information is unclassified. DHS has reported that agency policy requires all DHS employees, now over 180,000, to comply with the three-page nondisclosure agreement even if they have not signed it. While other federal agencies use nondisclosure agreements to protect sensitive but unclassified information, DHS’s agreement is stricter and farther-reaching. The DHS form allows any employee or contractor to restrict information as “official use only.” The form also defines “sensitive” as any information that could “adversely affect the national interest or the conduct of federal programs,” which could be so broadly interpreted to include information important to oversight and accountability. Violation of the agreements could result in administrative, disciplinary, criminal and/or civil penalties. Now DHS is asking congressional staffers to sign a nondisclosure agreement. It is not clear what the terms of the agreement are or which staffers are being asked to sign it. However, several staffers acknowledge being approached to sign the agreement. Congressional offices from both parties have refused to sign the forms. They, along with good government groups, consider the agreements to be part of an unprecedented effort to expand government secrecy that is unmanageable and likely unconstitutional. “This is unclassified material, and we have a right to it without signing over our lives," said Ken Johnson spokesperson of Rep. Christopher Cox (R- CA), chair of the House Select Homeland Security Committee. “We are the overseers, not the overseen.” DHS officials claim that the forms merely educate employees about the importance of protecting sensitive but unclassified information and that it does not restrict the information from appropriate use or disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. The agreements follow up on a DHS directive protecting sensitive but unclassified information and only sharing the material with those who have been determined to have a “need to know” it. The two largest federal unions, the National Treasury Employees Union and the American Federation of Government Employees, have urged DHS to retract the policy. “The directive violates public policy and our national interest by providing a ready device for officials to suppress and cover up evidence of their own misconduct or malfeasance,” attorneys for the unions wrote in a letter to Homeland Security General Counsel Joe Whitley.