1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I am writing to you about a serious threat to the safety of generic medications that millions of Americans take every day. A recent ProPublica investigation found that the Food and Drug Administration often does not routinely test the quality of generic drugs, including those made at factories with a long record of safety violations. The agency has also made it hard for doctors, patients, and Congress to see where drugs are made and whether they come from plants with troubling inspection records. ProPublica’s reporting shows the FDA has failed to give the public clear information on these risks even when safety concerns mount, and this gap in oversight affects the majority of prescriptions filled in the United States (ProPublica, December 2025). Generic drugs are vital to affordable health care, but without proper oversight people could be taking medicines from factories that have repeatedly failed safety standards or that FDA inspectors rarely test in depth. Lawmakers from both parties, including Senator Rick Scott and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, have expressed concern about the agency’s weak oversight of foreign drugmakers and the lack of transparency about risky products entering the U.S. market (ProPublica, December 2025). We need more funding for the FDA so it can hire and retain experienced inspectors, conduct routine and unannounced testing, and give the public and health care providers the information they need to trust the medicines on pharmacy shelves. Congress should act now to strengthen FDA oversight of generic drugs before more patients suffer harm.