Barack Obama confirmed on Tuesday that the US plans to end the National Security Agency's systematic collection of Americans’ telephone records, as leaders of a key committee in Congress insisted they were close to a deal with the White House to revamp the surveillance program.

Under plans to be put forward by the Obama administration in the next few days, the NSA would end the so-called bulk collection of telephone records, and instead would be required to seek a new kind of court order to search data held by telecommunications companies.

The proposals come nine months after the practice was first disclosed by the Guardian, based on leaks from the whistleblower Edward Snowden. Obama conceded that the revelations had caused trust in the US to plunge around the world.

“We have got to win back the trust not just of governments, but, more importantly, of ordinary citizens. And that's not going to happen overnight, because there's a tendency to be sceptical of government and to be sceptical of the US intelligence services,” Obama said at a news conference in The Hague, where world leaders are gathered for a summit on nuclear security.

Obama said he believed the reform proposals presented to him by the US intelligence agencies were “workable”, and would “eliminate” the concerns of privacy campaigners. “I am confident that it allows us to do what is necessary in order to deal the threat of a terrorist attack, but does so in a way that addresses people's concerns,” he said.

Activists gave a cautious welcome to Obama's plans. Jameel Jaffer, the deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in an article for the Guardian: “The president is acknowledging that a surveillance program endorsed by all three branches of government, and in place for more than a decade, has not been able to survive public scrutiny. It's an acknowledgement that the intelligence agencies, the surveillance court and the intelligence committees struck a balance behind closed doors that could not be defended in public.”

In a statement through the ACLU, Snowden said he had always believed that the NSA's "unconstitutional mass surveillance of Americans" would not stand up to public, political or legal scrutiny, if the extent of it became known. "This is a turning point, and it marks the beginning of a new effort to reclaim our rights from the NSA and restore the public's seat at the table of government," he said.

The White House said Obama will now ask the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court, which gives legal oversight to the system, to approve the current bulk collection program for a final 90-day period as the president attempts to implement his plan.



Attention will now be focused on how that can be achieved in Congress. In Washington on Tuesday, leaders of the House intelligence committee outlined their proposals for NSA reform, which they say would also end bulk phone record collection but which have been greeted with scepticism by civil liberties campaigners.

The bill being pushed by the committee’s Republican chairman, Mike Rogers of Michigan, and its ranking Democrat, Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland – both NSA allies – would empower the government to compel phone companies and internet service providers to turn over records with a “reasonable articulable suspicion” of connection to terrorism or espionage, along with data of individuals up to two “hops” – or degrees of separation – away.

Although a single order could involve sprawling into the data of thousands of individuals, Rogers and Ruppersberger said their bill would represent “ending bulk collection”. Both men have been vocal defenders of the phone records program but they now concede that it made their colleagues and constituents uncomfortable. "We're beyond that," Rogers said. "Now our goal, and our number one goal, always has been, not about about bulk collection, but: how do we catch these people trying to call in to the United States? Can we do it in a way that prevents another 9/11?"

Ruppersberger, whose district includes the NSA's Fort Meade headquarters, added: "Mike and I knew we had to deal with the perception and get the confidence of the American people."



Both leaders said they were close to alignment with the White House proposal, which they said currently provides greater up-front judicial scrutiny on the data collection than their own effort. "We think the White House is now moving toward our position on this. We've been sharing text with them for the past few weeks," Rogers said.



Neither the White House nor the House intelligence committee proposal would require telecommunications firms to keep such records any longer than the current 18-month maximum, a significant shift away from the five years during which they are currently held by NSA. The moves represent a significant overhaul of the secret mass collection practices of the past 13 years, as exposed by Snowden.



Under the House intelligence committee bill, judges on the secret Fisa court would approve the NSA's procedures for acquiring the data from the firms, but would only review the specific data collection after the collection occurs. According to a draft of the bill, judges who considered the data collection improper could order a purge of it.

The introduction of the bill sets up a legislative battle with a more far-reaching reform effort, authored by GOP congressman Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and Democratic senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. The Leahy-Sensenbrenner bill, known as the USA Freedom Act, permits the government to acquire data related to an "ongoing" terrorism investigation – the standard set out in the Patriot Act, which since 2006 the NSA has contended its bulk collection of Americans' phone data meets.

Rogers and Ruppersberger forcefully rejected that proposal. "We believe the other bills out there don't meet that standard of still being able to protect Americans through intelligence-gathering," Rogers said.



On Monday night, Sensenbrenner was just as critical of the Rogers-Ruppersberger bill, describing it as “convoluted” and insufficiently protective of Americans' privacy. “It limits, but does not end, bulk collection. Provisions included in the draft fall well short of the safeguards in the USA Freedom Act and do not strike the proper balance between privacy and security,” he said.

Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, said on Tuesday that she would hold a hearing on the White House and House intelligence committee proposals, a further indication that the Leahy-Sensenbrenner initiative faces an uphill struggle to avoid being squeezed out.



“I believe the president’s plan is a worthy effort. I have said before that I am open to reforming the call records program as long as any changes meet our national security needs and address privacy concerns, and that any changes continue to provide the government with the means to protect against future terrorist attacks,” Feinstein said.



In a statement, Leahy, who chairs the Senate judiciary committee, also welcomed Obama's plan to end collection of US phone records. "That is a key element of what I and others have outlined in the USA Freedom Act, and that is what the American people have been demanding," he said.

“I look forward to having meaningful consultation with the administration on these matters, and reviewing its proposal to evaluate whether it sufficiently protects Americans’ privacy. In the meantime, the president could end bulk collection once and for all on Friday by not seeking reauthorisation of this program. Rather than postponing action any longer, I hope he chooses this path.”

A spokeswoman for one of the major telephone companies, Sprint, said: "We are reviewing the Obama administration’s proposal with great interest and look forward to seeing additional details of the administration’s proposal."

Senator Mark Udall, the Colorado Democrat who has been a prominent critic of bulk surveillance, said he was encouraged by the president's plans. "The constitution is clear … the ongoing bulk collections of Americans' call records is an unacceptable invasion of our privacy that doesn't make us safer and must be brought to an end," he said.



Another Democratic critic, Ron Wyden of Oregon, said Obama's shift against bulk collection was a victory. "This is the start of the end of dragnet surveillance in America," said Wyden, who added that he spoke to the White House on Monday night.

"It's very clear now that the administration agrees with us," said Wyden, hailing a switch from both the Bush and Obama administration stance that "collecting these records is vital to western civilisation".

Udall and Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky urged Obama to immediately cease the collection of any phone or email data without a court approved warrant and criticised the House intelligence bill as insufficient. "There may be potential for abuse in the House proposal," Udall said.