WASHINGTON (TIP): President Barack Obama is expected to endorse changes to the way the government collects millions of Americans’ phone records for possible future surveillance, but he’ll leave many of the specific adjustments for Congress to sort out, according to three US officials familiar with the White House intelligence review. That move would thrust much of the decision-making on Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act toward a branch of government that is deeply divided over the future of surveillance.

And members of Congress are in no hurry to settle their differences and quickly enact broad changes. Obama will speak about the bulk collections and other surveillance programmes in a highly anticipated speech on Friday at the justice department. White House officialscautioned that the review Obama has been conducting is not complete and that he could make additional decisions. They said that a panel recommendation that has proven particularly challenging for Obama is to strip NSA of its authority to hold phone records.