Members of Congress were quick to react to news that the U.S. government has been surveilling the phone calls of foreign leaders, calling hearings and introducing legislation this week that called for tightening the U.S.'s ability to spy.

But despite the statements of Washington politicians, little change has really come from the information leaked by former intelligence employee Edward Snowden, who began telling intelligence secrets to journalists in June and has so far revealed how robustly the U.S. keeps an eye on its friends and enemies via technology.

And, according to former intelligence officials, changes are not likely to come anytime soon, regardless of how loudly Snowden's revelations reverberate around Washington.

"Will this make any significant changes? I doubt it," said John Sano, a retired CIA official in the Clandestine Service. California Senator "Dianne Feinstein has legitimate outrage over this but saying we need to change the rules and actually creating a mechanism that will effectively change the rules and allow Congress to monitor it is a completely different story."