It also establishes new standards for prosecuting wrongdoing and gives corporate whistle-blowers broad new protections.

"Merrill is in an increasingly delicate position," said Stephen L. Meagher, a former federal prosecutor in San Francisco who now represents corporate whistle-blowers.

The bill also offers additional protections to corporate whistle-blowers and prevents executives who lose securities fraud lawsuits from using bankruptcy to escape fraud-related verdicts and settlements.

Let's talk about a few of those issues: Protection for sources - Not all confidential sources are Deep Throat, or heroic corporate whistle-blowers.

It did not vote for big business and to defeat corporate whistle-blowers, nor did it vote against civil rights advocates.

As it was, she was the media's darling, the valiant corporate whistle-blower who'd stepped in the moment she'd suspected trouble and brought Lintel's evil empire crashing down.

After all, many Americans were introduced to the concept of corporate "whistle-blowers" by CBS journalists.

Ms. Watkins's prescient letter, made public in the Congressional investigation into the company's collapse, brought her fame as a corporate whistle-blower.

The other creates a new route for corporate whistle-blowers to file lawsuits seeking compensatory damages if their employer retaliates against them.

"The history of punishment in corporate cases is not very good," said Stephen Meagher, an ex-federal prosecutor now representing corporate and government whistle-blowers.