Bart Stupak says yes. The Michigan Democrat, who heads the House subcommittee that has been probing the agency for all sorts of reasons, wrote a letter last week to FDA commish Andy von Eschenbach to ask whether he would support efforts to provide subpoena power.

The move comes after recent house committee testimony from Janet Woodcock, who runs the drug review branch, and Deborah Autor, who heads the agency’s Office of Compliance. Stupak, who would like to add subpoena power to the drug importation bill pending in the House, made a point of asking both officials whether subpoena power would be helpful. Their answers? Yes.

As Stupak notes, the FDA does not have authority to demand some documents from drug and device makers without help from the Justice Department. Congress, meanwhile, has debated the notion for the past six years. Curiously, the FDA hasn’t sought subpoena power during that time either.

In his May 14 letter to Andy, Stupak emphasizes that Woodcock and Autor gave “unfiltered responses” to his questions and he wants to know if Andy will “stand by” their statements and support the provision to add subpoena power to the importation bill. We will let you know if or when a reply is received.

Hat tip to the WSJ Health blog