The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Government Surveillance and Crime is set to investigate reports of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies purchasing Americans’ private data, a move that Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) believes violates the Fourth Amendment.

The FBI admitted in March that it had purchased geolocation data from Americans’ mobile-phone advertising, while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has also bought access to American geolocation data. Other agencies, including the IRS and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), are also believed to want to engage in the practice.

While Thursday’s hearing may focus on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Biggs has said the committee may look into other issues, including the purchase of Americans’ private data by government agencies.

Biggs and other Republican lawmakers have raised concerns about the deliberate run-around of the Fourth Amendment, especially given the massive amounts of data already stored by the National Security Agency (NSA). They believe that the purchase of additional databases should not obviate the need for a Fourth Amendment search warrant. Biggs also said that he had spoken with Representative Ben Cline (R-VA) about the matter, and they agreed to investigate the issue.

During a hearing in March, Cline pressed Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz about the FBI’s purchase of American geolocation data and asked if other parts of the Justice Department were engaging in the practice. Horowitz said they were investigating the matter.

Cline then asked Attorney General Merrick Garland if he agreed with Horowitz that purchasing Americans’ private data should not have happened post-Carpenter v. United States, a landmark 2018 Supreme Court ruling that held that the US government needed a search warrant to track suspects for an extended period from cellphone carriers. Garland said that he did not know any more information than what FBI Director Christopher Wray had previously admitted.

In addition to the FBI and DHS, the NCIS and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) have also admitted to purchasing Venntel’s data. The military, federal, state, and local police forces have access to bulk data sets from commercial vendors to acquire information, often without court authorization.

Online privacy and digital rights group Demand Progress has called for Congress to take immediate action to rein in mass surveillance, while California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia have passed consumer privacy legislation to protect citizens’ data.

To address the issue of geolocation data, lawmakers have proposed a bicameral solution that would declare geolocation data as sensitive and restrict private industry’s use of that data.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY), has also unveiled the Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act, which would block law enforcement agencies from buying access to geolocation data without a warrant. With both Democrats and Republicans showing concern about the issue, it appears that there may be some consensus in Congress to address the matter and protect Americans’ privacy rights.