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Congress should launch an investigation into what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is doing to prevent additional superbug infections after a deadly outbreak at a Los Angeles hospital linked to tainted medical scopes, a lawmaker said Monday.

U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., sent a letter asking the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to hold a hearing on the issue, which he said "poses both health and national security risks." The committee oversees the FDA.

A U.S. lawmaker on Monday called on the Congress to investigate the medical scopes blamed for an outbreak of a bacterial "superbug" at a University of California, Los Angeles hospital that has infected seven patients.

Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, said in a letter asking for a congressional oversight committee hearing that the outbreak of the drug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, bacteria posed "both health and national security" risks.

"If unmitigated, the human and societal costs of CRE outbreaks will continue to rise," Lieu wrote in the letter.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), is calling on the House Oversight Committee to hold hearings on a "superbug" that has led to two deaths at a hospital in his district.

Lieu wrote in a letter to Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) that the "superbug" has "both health and national security risks."

Officials at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles announced last week that a drug-resistant bacteria, known as CRE, had led to two deaths and that 179 people had potentially been exposed. At least seven people have been infected.

Prompted by the UCLA superbug outbreak, a federal lawmaker is calling on Congress to investigate what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and device makers are doing to prevent further patient deaths and infections.

In a letter sent Monday to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said outbreaks related to contaminated medical scopes "have national security ramifications."

Last week, UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center became the latest in a string of U.S. hospitals suffering outbreaks involving CRE and other deadly bacteria.

Members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) on Feb. 13 released the following statements to condemn the use of excessive police force against Sureshbhai Patel, an Indian grandfather who was left partially paralyzed after an encounter with Alabama police.