Today, two representatives from the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee sent a letter (PDF) to Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency (NSA), asking him to discontinue any plans to expand the list of who the NSA shares certain information with.

In late February, The New York Times reported that the Obama administration was working with the NSA to craft new rules and procedures to allow domestic law enforcement organizations like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) access to the digital communications information that the NSA collects through programs like PRISM . Under the new rules, domestic law enforcement agencies would be able to access raw information that the NSA collects, without the so-called “minimization” process that the NSA has formerly employed to scrub surveillance information of identifying data pertaining to American citizens before handing it over to the requesting agency.

”We are alarmed by press reports that state National Security Agency (NSA) data may soon routinely be used for domestic policing,” Representative Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Representative Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) wrote. "If media accounts are true, this radical policy shift by the NSA would be unconstitutional, and dangerous.”

"The American people deserve a public debate,” the representatives added.

The FBI and other agencies can already tap certain phone-based raw data under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but those agencies have to request the NSA's permission to access information gathered over digital communication, which the NSA scrubs of references to US citizens before handing over. To go into effect, new rules governing how the NSA shares information it gathers will have to be approved by Intelligence Director James Clapper, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.

Representatives Lieu and Farenthold criticized the tactic taken by the NSA to expand its power to share information. "Domestic law enforcement agencies—which need a warrant supported by probable cause to search or seize—cannot do an end run around the Fourth Amendment by searching warrantless information collected by the NSA,” they wrote.

"Our country has always drawn a line between our military and intelligence services, and domestic policing and spying,” the representatives continued. "We do not—and should not—use US Army Apache helicopters to quell domestic riots; Navy Seal Teams to take down counterfeiting rings; or the NSA to conduct surveillance on domestic street gangs."

Ars has requested a comment from the NSA and will update this story when we receive a response.

ACLU legislative counsel Neema Singh Guliani said in a statement: “Members of Congress are right to be concerned. Under a policy like this, information collected by the NSA would be available to a host of federal agencies that may use it to investigate and prosecute domestic crimes. Making such a change without authorization from Congress or the opportunity for debate would ignore public demands for greater transparency and oversight over intelligence activities.”