When former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the government has been using the USA Patriot Act for the secret collection and surveillance of metadata, the now-fugitive sparked a national debate about the transparency of the American intelligence community. Two years later, the House Judiciary Committee has passed a bill known as the USA Freedom Act, which aims to prevent the government from continuing to prioritize national security over civil liberties.

The House Judiciary Committee showed strong support for the new measure, voting for the USA Freedom Act to pass with a 25-to-2 vote. The House is expected to follow suit and vote to pass the bill, and Rep. Adam Schiff of California told the Times that a bipartisan House vote “will send a strong message to the Senate that in the House, both sides of the aisle want reforms.” Congress will then get a chance to rework the Patriot Act on June 1, when three sections of the bill will be up for reauthorization.

If the Freedom Act gets approved, the NSA will be prohibited from continuing the bulk collection of metadata, and will only be able to access data stored by phone companies if they obtain the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court first. The bill will also mandate the creation of a panel of experts who will help provide the Court with advice regarding civil liberties and technology issues.

“The bill ends bulk collection, it ends secret law,” said Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, who was a co-author of the Freedom Act and was the original author of the Patriot Act. “It increases the transparency of our intelligence community and it does all this without compromising national security.”

While the Freedom Act won’t limit the retention of data collected about people who turn out to not have had any connection to a legitimate suspect and doesn’t change the Drug Enforcement Administration’s surveillance programs, it has thus far received widespread support from human rights advocates and lawmakers.