House leaders have reached a bipartisan compromise on a bill that would end the National Security Agency 's controversial collection of American phone records , but the measure faces an uncertain future in the Senate . The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday overwhelmingly passed the latest version of a bill known as the USA Freedom Act by a bipartisan vote of 25 to 2 . The measure seeks to codify President Barack Obama 's proposal to end the NSA 's collection of domestic calling records . It would allow the agency to request certain records held by the telephone companies under a court order in terrorism investigations . The authority to collect those records and other related surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act will expire June 1 unless Congress passes a law reauthorizing it . The House bill would do that , with changes . SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO . UNHOLY TRIUMVIRATE ? CIA Director John Brennan ( center ) , National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers ( right ) and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper ( left ) will soon be handed new rules of the road for mass-surveillance efforts . REMEMBER ME ? NSA leaker Edward Snowden is still taking refuge outside the US , nearly two years after exposing the depth of the agency 's eavesdropping program . Republican Representatives Bob Goodlatte and Jim . Sensenbrenner , and Democrats John Conyers and Jerry Nadler . introduced the 'USA Freedom Act . ' It would result in phone companies , not the NSA , collecting so-called 'metadata ' on trillions of phone calls . Government agencies could get access to it by applying to a judge empowered by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act . Similar legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate by . Democrat Patrick Leahy and Republican Mike Lee . But Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch . McConnell is seemingly out of phase , sponsoring his own bill to extend the PATRIOT Act – unchanged – until the end of 2020 . McConnell said he intended his bill to be a starting point for legislative debate , not a complete solution . A similar bill to the one that cleared the Judiciary Committee passed the full House last year by a bipartisan vote of 303 to 121 but narrowly failed a procedural vote in the Senate . The Judiciary Committee chairman , Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte , said the bill 's provisions had been carefully negotiated with both the intelligence committee and intelligence agencies . During the hearing , lawmakers said a deal had been reached to bring the USA Freedom Act to the floor without going through the intelligence committee , where many Republicans support continuing the NSA bulk collection . The NSA 's collection and storage of U.S. 'to and from ' landline calling records – times , dates and numbers , but not content of the calls – was the most controversial program among many disclosed by former NSA systems administrator Edward Snowden . CONTRARIAN : Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , a Kentucky Republican , is trying to reauthorize the USA PATRIOT Act without changes . Some NSA officials opposed the program , and independent evaluations have found it of limited value as a counterterrorism tool . Goodlatte said the House bill would create a 'narrower , targeted program , ' that will still allow the NSA to hunt for connections between foreign terrorists and U.S. residents . 'We must act decisively to end bulk collection in the United States , ' said Rep. John Conyers , the ranking Democrat , in an Associated Press interview . 'For years , the NSA has collected our phone records , yet it can not point to a single attack that the collection has stopped , ' added Rep. James Sensenbrenner , a Wisconsin Republican who was one of the Patriot Act 's original authors . Some lawmakers offered amendments they said would toughen the bill 's civil liberties provisions , but those were voted down , with other lawmakers saying they would kill the deal and empower those who want to continue NSA phone records collection . A civil liberties group praised the bill . 'The USA Freedom Act of 2015 offers an effective path forward in reforming overbroad domestic surveillance and putting an end to the bulk collection of Americans ' communications , ' said Nuala O'Connor , president of the Center for Democracy and Technology , in a statement .
FREEDOM Act would replace PATRIOT Act when it expires on June 1 . Careful negotiations have brought it to a House vote but the Senate is still uncertain . Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has introduced a bill that would re-authorize the existing PATRIOT Act for 5 more years . Civil liberties activists are upset over mass-surveillance carried out by the NSA and exposed by leaker Edward Snowden .