The Freedom Act will put an end to the NSA’s collection of Americans’ phone records, which was first revealed in leaks by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013. It will also inject new transparency measures into the secretive process by which the government obtains court orders to monitor the communications of Americans and foreigners.

But the legislation was also quietly embraced by NSA officials, who said it largely preserved their authorities while ditching a program that was never all that useful.

The phone records program is the only one that the agency has lost in the two years since the Snowden leaks began, an outcome that current and former officials have told The Daily Beast is better than just about any they could have imagined. The phone records program was rarely used. And under the Freedom Act, the agency will still have access to not only the same set of data, but potentially more, because the original NSA program didn’t collect information about cell phone calls.

The phone records will be stored with phone companies, and not the NSA, which officials have said isn’t an ideal solution. But it’s one they can live with, and considering it’s the only program they’ve had to give up, the NSA arguably dodged a bullet.