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As unconfirmed reports surfaced that a draft of an Iran nuclear deal was being circulated among the parties to international negotiations in Switzerland, U.S. lawmakers at a hearing Thursday in Washington seemed to grow increasingly nervous.

Officials told the Associated Press that the U.S. and Iran were drafting elements of a nuclear deal that committed Tehran to a 40 percent cut in the number of machines it could use to make an atomic bomb. In return, the officials said, Iran would get quick relief from some crippling economic sanctions and a partial lifting of a U.N. embargo on conventional arms.

Later in the day, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki dismissed reports of a deal.

"The reports are inaccurate," she said. "There is no draft document being circulated. The fundamental framework issues are still under comprehensive discussion, and obviously that is what [Secretary of State John Kerry] is focused on now."

Kerry has been in Switzerland this week, meeting with his Iranian counterpart as the United States and its partner countries Britain, Russia, China, France and Germany try to reach an outline of an agreement before March 31. The deadline for a comprehensive agreement is the end of June.

Letter to Obama

At a contentious House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the Iran nuclear talks, several lawmakers insisted that Congress role in the negotiating process must not be marginalized.

Represenative Eliot Engel of New York, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said he and Republican Chairman Ed Royce of California were sending a letter to President Barack Obama expressing their concerns about what needs to be in an Iran nuclear deal.

A draft of the letter emphasizes that permanent sanctions relief, which Iran has repeatedly requested during the Geneva negotiations, would require new legislation.

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US Congress Asks Obama for Greater Role in Iran Nuclear Deal