A bill that restricts governments’ use of nondisclosure agreements to silence public employees in Colorado earned bipartisan support in a Senate committee Thursday.

“This is just a fundamental principle that government should be conducted in the light,” said Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, the Brighton Republican who introduced Senate Bill 23-053. “We shouldn’t be muzzling employees or government officials.”

Passed 4-1 by the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, the measure prohibits state agencies and local governments, including school districts, from requiring employees or prospective employees to sign agreements that keep them from disclosing “factual circumstances” concerning their employment.

Exceptions allow for nondisclosure agreements when the circumstances of employment “reasonably implicate privacy interests” of the employee or it concerns a matter required to be kept confidential by state or federal law. Language added by the committee also permits NDAs to protect trade secrets and other confidential procurement information.