Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) will investigate the nexus of two major problems plaguing the FDA: the ability of the agency to ensure the safety of drugs already on the market and the ability of the agency to monitor imports. In a letter to FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, Grassley requested a meeting to answer questions about FDA's practices regarding drug imports. According to Grassley's letter, "Nearly 80 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in the U.S. are manufactured abroad." Grassley asks a slew of questions about how the agency conducts inspections of foreign facilities, how often it conducts those inspections, how often FDA inspects brand-name-producing facilities vs. generic-producing facilities, what kind of partnerships FDA has with foreign governments, whether FDA has plans to create foreign offices, and many more. Let's hope FDA provides meaningful responses to these questions. The public deserves to know how the nation's premiere drug regulator is handling this situation.