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Congress Weighing Changes to NSA's Data-Collection Program

If passed, the USA Freedom Act would put an end to the controversial NSA bulk collection of phone records.

(TNS) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that would reform intelligence gathering practices, including ending the mass collection of telephone call data by the National Security Agency (NSA). The House voted 338 to 88 for the USA Freedom Act a day after the White House called for Congress to pass it quickly. Almost as many Democrats as Republicans voted against the bill.

Congress is weighing the changes as the legislation that authorized the intelligence program is due to expire June 1. The reforms cleared a key hurdle when it passed the House Judiciary Committee last month.

The Senate is expected to take up the bill by the end of May. Passage would mean an end to controversial NSA bulk collection of phone records.

The records however would still be stored and available for searches by the NSA. The difference is the telecommunications companies, not the NSA, would store the records and searches could be conducted only after the NSA obtained a court order specifying a term linked to a person, account or address.

But the Senate is split over whether the current program should be reined in. Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would like to allow the massive data collection to continue for another five years.

It would also limit collection of phone records from phone companies by allowing only more narrowly tailored requests and would reform the secretive surveillance court that approves spying requests.

The White House said Tuesday the bill "strikes an appropriate balance between significant reform and preservation of important national security tools."

The White House also said the measure would balance civil liberty and privacy concerns while still allowing intelligence capabilities.

Documents leaked by fugitive government contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 first revealed widespread collection of internet and telephone records as well as US spying on allies.

Obama sought reforms to the programs in the wake of an outcry by US allies and civil libertarians.

A US federal appeals court in New York last week ruled as illegal the NSA's mass collection of phone records, saying that modern technology enables more invasion of privacy than ever.

©2015 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.