Twin bills to curb surveillance yet to pass committee stage but reformers pledge to fight anew when Congress returns next year

For all the outrage about the broad surveillance powers of the National Security Agency, reform advocates are conceding that the US Congress will likely end 2013 without restricting them.

Two complementary major bills, one in the House and the other in the Senate, that would forbid the NSA from collecting bulk phone data on Americans without suspicion of a crime, represent the most viable vehicles for curbing at least some of the surveillance agency's controversial authorities. Yet they have yet to pass their committees and head to the chamber floors as the days tick down on the legislative calendar.

Proponents of the bills are all but closing the door on 2013, a year characterized significantly by the NSA revelations provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, as the year of the surveillance agency's reckoning. They pledge to renew the fight for the bills when Congress reconvenes in January, and will seek to build momentum for them.

"I'm very optimistic about the chances of the House debating substantial, comprehensive surveillance reform next year," Congressman Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican, told the Guardian.

Amash fired the first legislative shot across the NSA's bow in July, when his amendment to a critical defense bill that would have banned bulk phone data collection on Americans came within seven votes of passing. The current congressional package, called the USA Freedom Act, follows on Amash's effort, and supporters say it has attracted enough support, from privacy advocates in both parties, to pass.

But first it has to get to the floor of the House of Representatives – where the leadership, which allowed a floor vote on Amash's amendment this summer, appears to take a more skeptical view.

The bill's prospects in the Senate appear brighter. It is sponsored by Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, a reliable ally of Barack Obama who chairs the judiciary committee. The committee will consider its passage before it heads to the Senate floor.

In the House, the USA Freedom Act is principally sponsored by Jim Sensenbrenner, the Wisconsin Republican who co-authored the Patriot Act. Despite a high-profile rollout in the fall, Sensenbrenner's bill has been referred to three different House panels for consideration: the judiciary committee, where skepticism of NSA is bipartisan; the intelligence committee, where support for the NSA is just as bipartisan; and the financial services committee.

Supporters hope that the House leadership will allow the bill to nevertheless proceed to a floor vote, where they believe it already has the votes to pass. Between the House and the Senate, they say it has attracted 120 co-sponsors, more than a quarter of the Congress. In the House, they claim to have more than a dozen co-sponsors of both parties who either opposed or did not vote on the Amash amendment in July, which would overcome the margin of defeat if no additional legislators defect.

But congressional aides said that House speaker John Boehner has not communicated his intentions for a floor vote to Sensenbrenner. A Boehner spokesman, Michael Steel, said he was "not aware of the legislation you’re referring to" when the Guardian inquired, and referred questions about the floor schedule to House majority leader Eric Cantor's office.

The USA Freedom Act "hasn't gone through committee yet," said Cantor spokeswoman Megan Whittemore.

Sensenbrenner's office said it is optimistic about the bill's chances in 2014, citing its large number of co-sponsors as evidence that a legislative appetite to pass it remains.

"Momentum is continuing to build," said Ben Miller, Sensenbrenner's spokesman.

"The American people demand that their privacy be protected and that the federal government abide by the fourth amendment," Amash said. "As congressmen hear from their constituents through emails, calls, and town halls, more and more representatives are calling for the NSA to be reined in."

Still, even with new Snowden revelations continuing to be published by the Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times and other outlets, the only surveillance bill that has passed out of any committee this fall is a measure sponsored by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, that would codify bulk phone records collection, and perhaps expand it.

Outside of the legislative process, a White House-led review process – stacked with intelligence veterans and Obama loyalists and answering to embattled director of national intelligence James Clapper – is considering additional changes to surveillance. That panel is slated to deliver final recommendations as early as this month, although it may slip into the new year.

Members of the review have told the Guardian that changes most likely to be recommended are those mandating greater transparency for the surveillance process, and perhaps a restriction on spying on foreign leaders, which has caused a diplomatic crisis for the Obama administration this fall. Bulk surveillance on Americans and foreigners – covering Americans' call records, foreign communications over voice and internet, and even cell phone locations – is likely to receive the panel's blessing.

Obama indicated on Thursday that he would propose at least some restrictions on the NSA’s surveillance activities in 2014.

“Part of what we’re trying to do is, over the next month or so, is, having done an independent review, and having brought in a whole bunch of folks – civil libertarians and lawyers and others – to examine what’s being done, I’ll be proposing some self-restraint on the NSA, to initiate some reforms that can give people some more confidence,” Obama told Chris Matthews in an interview for MSNBC.

Senior NSA officials are currently engaged in an unprecedented outreach campaign, on college campuses and other venues outside of the Beltway, to make the case for their broad surveillance powers. They typically concede that at least some curbs on their power are inevitable, and are now arguing those restrictions ought to be minimal.

Supporters of the USA Freedom Act say that they were prepared for the prospect of the 2013 legislative calendar expiring without their favored reform bill passing.

"This is not necessarily a sign of failure," said Michelle Richardson, the ACLU's surveillance lobbyist.

"We are still picking up co-sponsors, and the continuing revelations only increase congressional and public outrage. We are aware that this should happen early and there is certainly motivation in the House. Intel authorization and other bills will be indefinitely delayed until the spying issue gets some attention."

"The Freedom Act now has more than 100 co-sponsors, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats," Amash said.

"Americans are rightly angry with partisan gridlock in Washington. Here's an opportunity to pass meaningful, bipartisan legislation that we know has broad support. Let's get this done in this Congress."