Following outrage from the American public over the heavily armed Ferguson police force, congressional lawmakers are seeking curbs in legislation that created the program.

Rep. Hank Johnson is re-introducing legislation, the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act, that would prevent the transfer of some military-grade equipment to local law enforcement agencies from the Department of Defense.

Specially, his legislation would ban armored personnel carriers, drones, MRAPS and assault weapons, and require the Department of Defense to annually account for what material has been transferred and by whom.

Elected officials, from Missouri's Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), sharply criticized the local police response to protesters in Ferguson and raised calls to "de-militarize the police," according to TPM.

Latin Post ran a story on the American Civil Liberties Union report, "War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing," which said local police departments were increasingly armed with military weapons more suitable for war zones than the suburbs. From 2010 to 2013, 20 law enforcement agencies deployed SWAT teams a combined 818 times. In 62 percent of the cases, SWAT was deployed to execute a search warrant for drugs, and most affected by the deployements were communities of color.

The report showed under the Department of Defense Program 1033, weapons and vehicles were transferred to police departments for free -- weapons often no longer used in war situations, as well as stock overruns. 

Elizabeth Beavers of the Friends Committee on National Legislation told RT.com's Manila Chan, "These are reaching every state, all 50 states, four U.S. territories, almost $5 billion worth of equipment.  We think no one is really safe from this."

Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) who sat on the House Appropriations Committee at the time of that report, wanted to cut funding for the program and further restrict regulatory agencies. 

The ACLU report also showed that non-law-enforcement agencies like the Department of Education have paramilitary units for executing warrants.

Senate Armed Services Chair Carl Levin (D-MI) said they would review the 1033 program.

"Congress established this program out of real concern that local law enforcement agencies were literally outgunned by drug criminals. We intended this equipment to keep police officers and their communities safe from heavily armed drug gangs and terrorist incidents. Before the defense authorization bill comes to the Senate floor, we will review this program to determine if equipment provided by the Defense Department is being used as intended," Levin said in a statement, according to TPM.