Sensenbrenner: ‘Freedom Act ends bulk data collection’

DW: You've been critical of what the NSA has been doing and have authored the Freedom Act. But the Freedom Act also doesn't include rights for European citizens or other foreign nationals. Do you think that foreign nationals also deserve a right not to be monitored indiscriminately?

Frank James Sensenbrenner: Yes, unless they are involved in some type of terrorist activity. The issue with the Freedom Act, however, is that constitutionally the United States Congress cannot legislate in this area, because it is a presidential prerogative under our constitution to deal with foreign relations. How that is handled will have to be done by President Obama in the executive branch.

However, what I can say is that the Freedom Act ends bulk collection for everybody - Americans and foreigners. Bulk collection was never intended to be the case in the Patriot Act, which I authored. We are going to get back to where we started from right after September 11 in targeting the collection only to people who are foreigners who are part of a designated terrorist organization. And we ought to be watching what those people are doing.

How optimistic are you that the Freedom Act will actually become law?

I think we have a better than 50:50 chance. I think there are definitely the votes in the House [of Representatives] to pass the Freedom Act, and unless the Freedom Act is passed, the intelligence reauthorization bill will not be passed. This is a kind of under the Capitol dome thing in terms of how it is lined up in terms of procedure and how we get votes. My main job now is to get a vote on the Freedom Act, because if I do get a vote, I am certain that an overwhelming majority of both Democrats and Republicans in the House will vote for it.

Can Europeans do anything to help push that matter?

I think the message that Europeans can do to help is the point how much the NSA scandal has hurt transatlantic relations and has broken trust. It has cost American companies a lot of business in Europe. There are also some unfortunate things that have happened such as taking away the internationalization of the Internet, which would be a bad idea, and stopping the negotiations on the transatlantic trade agreement, which would also be a bad idea.

People all over the world were outraged when the news of NSA spying activities broke

I would hope that there would not be any punitive reactions on the part of either the European Commission or on the part of national governments of member states of the EU while we in America are trying to figure out what to do with the NSA to bring it back to where it ought to be: that is, an organization that is designed to root out domestic and international terrorism.

Germany has played a pretty important role in this international debate on the NSA revelations and has reiterated just recently that it is so far not contend with the message that it received from Washington on the NSA revelations, but specifically also of the targeting of Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone. Do you think that it is realistic, that the Obama administration should send a further message or signal to Berlin?