WASHINGTON  — U.S. lawmakers warned on Tuesday, Feb 4,  that time is running out to make specific reforms to the National Security Agency’s telephone surveillance program and promised Congress would act if the Obama administration does not.

The House Judiciary Committee examined recommendations for reforms to the U.S. government’s electronic spying programs after revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden outraged American privacy advocates and strained relations with U.S. allies.

Members of the committee focused on the most sweeping of the spy programs, the bulk collection of telephone records, criticizing its broad reach and calling for stronger limits.

“It’s a vacuum cleaner,” said U.S. Representative James Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin. “And that’s why there has been such outrage both here and overseas.”

Sensenbrenner said Section 215, the portion of the USA Patriot Act under which the so-called metadata telephone program is operated, is due to expire in June 2015.

“There hasn’t been anything else that’s come from the administration and elsewhere to deal with this issue and the clock, sir, is ticking and it is ticking rapidly,” he said.

President Barack Obama announced limited reforms last month to rein in the vast collection of Americans’ phone data in a speech in which he banned U.S. eavesdropping on leaders of friendly or allied nations.

One of the biggest changes was an overhaul of the government’s handling of bulk telephone “metadata” — lists of millions of phone calls made by Americans that show which numbers were called and when.

Obama asked Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. intelligence community to report back to him before the program comes up for reauthorization on March 28 on how to preserve the necessary capabilities of the program, without the government holding the metadata.