AUGUSTA — President Barack Obama has signed into law a Maine senator’s bill to protect federal employees who reveal government waste, fraud, abuse and other wrongdoing.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins and her co-sponsor, Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka, were present as Obama signed the bill Tuesday in an Oval Office ceremony.

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Following a meeting with Sen.-elect Angus King of Maine, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, tells reporters that she wants answers from disgraced CIA Director David Petraeus about the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, on the American consulate, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Following a meeting with Sen.-elect Angus King of Maine, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, tells reporters that she wants answers from disgraced CIA Director David Petraeus about the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, on the American consulate, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) AP

Collins says the law makes it clear that federal employees should not be subject to prior restraint or punishment for disclosing wrongdoing.

The law will also give the U.S. Office of the Special Counsel the legal tools needed to enforce the law. It also requires each agency to educate workers about whistleblower rights.

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