Democratic lawmakers called for a congressional inquiry into the hacking of credit and debit card data of Target customers.

In a letter to Jeb Hensarling, the committee's members asked for a "full Financial Services Committee hearing."

The letter said a hearing should review current consumer protection laws and determine what could be done to ensure the future security of consumers' card information, said Reuters.

"It is incumbent upon our Committee to explore whether industry data protection standards are appropriate, and examine whether heightened regulatory standards are needed to more effectively protect consumers," the Democrats wrote.

Hensarling said in a statement that "Americans have a right to expect that the personal information they turn over to private companies and government agencies will be protected and kept secure from loss, unauthorized access or misuse. The House Financial Services Committee has held, and will continue to hold, hearings on the security of information collected by these agencies and financial institutions and will continue to press for accountability of all those who collect personal consumer data," Hensarling said.

Target Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel told CNBC TV  that "we're going to get to the bottom of this. We're not going to rest until we understand what happened and how that happened."

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission and state attorneys general would potentially look into Target's actions, said Reuters.