also noted that Obama had not made any progress on giving metadata storage responsibility to a third party, ending the undermining of encryption standards, increasing transparency within the NSA and protecting whistleblowers. Statements to the German people On January 18, 2014, Obama spoke to ZDF in an attempt to improve the United States relations with Germany, which a German foreign office official said were "worse than … the low-point in 2003 during the Iraq War" due to the surveillance leaks. Obama promised that he would not let revelations about mass surveillance damage German-American relations and admitted that it would take a long time for the United States to regain the trust of the German people. However, he maintained that the surveillance was necessary for international security. German reactions to the speeches given by Obama on January 17 and 18 ranged from skeptical to outright hostile. Members of the German media argued that they were hopeful that Obama would bring about needed reform. However, they also noted that his statements were vague and argued that they did not represent legitimate reform. Many German political leaders responded with outright hostility. Thomas Oppermann, the chairman of the German Social Democrats, demanded a no-spy treaty and stated that American surveillance constituted a crime. The German attorney general argued that there were grounds for a criminal investigation into the NSA's tapping of Angela Merkel's cell phone. Proposed overhaul of NSA phone surveillance programs On March 25, 2014, Obama promised to end the NSA's collection and storage of bulk phone-call data. Despite this promise, his administration continued to seek reauthorization of the telephone metadata program. It is approved every 90 days by the FISC, with the most recent authority set to expire June 1, 2015. In a plan submitted by the Obama Administration to Congress, the NSA would be required to conduct searches of data at phone companies. They would also need to receive a warrant from a federal judge to conduct the search. The overhaul proposal received support from the American Civil Liberties Union. A representative of the organization claimed that it was a crucial first step in reining in NSA surveillance. The overhaul was criticized by several officials, however, because it would force telephone carriers to store customers' metadata that they were previously not legally obligated to keep, a representative of Sprint Corporation stated that the carrier was examining the president's proposal with great