President Barack Obama will sign the "Whistleblowers Protection Enhancement Act of 2012" today, announced Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
"The bill signed into law today will help Congress stand behind those federal employees who help us protect the American people and their hard-earned tax dollars," Issa said in a statement. "While the new law will offer additional protections to those looking to stop waste, fraud, and mismanagement in government, we must remain vigilant in preventing retaliation against whistleblowers."
News outlets from the Daily Caller to Bloomberg to the liberal Mother Jones have criticized the president for his liberal prosecution of whistleblowers.
"Eric Holder, attorney general under President Barack Obama, has prosecuted more government officials for alleged leaks under the World War I-era Espionage Act than all his predecessors combined, including law-and-order Republicans John Mitchell, Edwin Meese and John Ashcroft," Bloomberg reported.
"Leaks that favor the president are shoveled out regardless of national security, while national security is twisted to pummel leaks that do not favor him," wrote Mother Jones.
The Daily Caller characterized the prosecutions as a "war on whistleblowers."
Bloomberg reported that Obama issued a "policy directive" in October to cover areas that the Whistleblower Protection Act does not but noted that the directive "still gives Obama the option of pursuing prosecutions of intelligence employees who talk to the press."