Text 12755, 117 rader
Skriven 2005-05-19 12:08:18 av Alan Hess
Ärende: Congress, stay out of sports!
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Congress has more important things to deal with than sports.  This is purely a
publicity stunt to try and improve their standing with the public.  It's a
stupid bill - all sports are different, their seasons are different, and they
should each deal with their own leagues and drug use punishments.

********

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/bal-steroids519,1,90763.story?coll=bal-spor
ts-headlines
Steroid legislation promised next week
New bill will call for uniform testing standard for four major sports;
Congressional leaders hold steroid hearings with NBA and NFL representatives


By Howard Fendrich
AP Sports Writer

May 19, 2005, 11:13 AM EDT

WASHINGTON -- Despite what he called an "abrupt about-face" by Major League
Baseball, the head of a congressional panel opened a hearing on steroids in the
NBA on Thursday by saying he'll propose a law next week to create a uniform
testing standard for the four major U.S. professional sports leagues.

House Government Reform Committee chairman Tom Davis promised that the
legislation he's drafting with ranking Democrat Henry Waxman of California and
Arizona Sen. John McCain "will have more teeth than other bills introduced."

Davis didn't go into detail, but Waxman said their legislation would follow the
Olympic model and would call for a two-year ban for a first offense and a
lifetime ban for a second offense.

Those are the same penalties in the Drug Free Sports Act introduced last month
by Florida Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of a House Energy and Commerce
subcommittee conducting a separate inquiry into steroids.

Stearns' panel is holding hearings to discuss his proposed legislation, with
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and NFL Players Association executive director
Gene Upshaw appearing Thursday.

Referring to the proposed bill, Tagliabue said he "would respectfully urge that
it not be enacted into law in its present form."

"The drug testing program in the NFL is not a 'problem' that needs federal
legislation in order to be 'fixed,'" Tagliabue added in his written testimony.

About 100 meters (yards) away, in another wood-paneled hearing room, Davis'
committee was hearing Thursday from NBA commissioner David Stern, NBA union
leader Billy Hunter, Washington Wizards guard Juan Dixon and Houston Rockets
trainer Keith Jones. The lawmakers held hearings on baseball in March and
American football in April.

"Certainly, the NBA is not suffering under the same cloud of steroid use
suspicion that has been hovering over other professional sports," Davis said.

But, he continued, "How do we know for sure there's no steroid problem in the
NBA if its testing policies are so weak? If there's little or no upside to
using steroids in basketball, why doesn't the NBA have the strongest policy in
all of sports?"

Waxman called the NBA's policy "simply inadequate. Of the professional sports
policies this committee has reviewed, the NBA policy appears to be the
weakest."

Stern repeated what he told Stearns' subcommittee on Wednesday: He has told
Hunter that he wants to add more in-season tests, double the penalty for a
first offense to 10 games and kick players out of the league for a third
positive test.

"The union supports some changes," Hunter said Thursday.

Davis said his bill would cover the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NFL and the
NHL.

"Our investigation already has spawned results, evidenced most profoundly by
Major League Baseball's abrupt about-face on the need for more stringent
testing," Davis said.

When baseball commissioner Bud Selig testified before Davis' panel in March, he
defended his sport's steroids policy against withering criticism, calling it
"as good as any in professional sports." He also said he had agreed to shorter
penalties "on the theory that behavior modification should be the most
important goal."

When he returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to testify before Stearns'
subcommittee along with the commissioners and union chiefs from the NBA, NHL
and Major League Soccer, Selig articulated other goals: wiping out steroids in
baseball and restoring the game's reputation.

"I'm proud of this sport, and I've been saddened by what I've read, what I've
heard. Do I think a lot of it has been unfair? I do. But it's up to us to take
the next step and that is to remove any doubt. There should be no equivocation
about what this sport wants, what it did about it and how it cleaned it up,"
Selig said.

On Wednesday, several lawmakers lauding the commissioner for his recent
attempts to strengthen baseball's drug program. He testified about the details
of his proposals.

"We need to do this as soon as possible," Selig said. "We just need to keep the
intensity and get it done. So we can quit talking about it."

Baseball banned steroids in September 2002 and instituted mandatory 10-day
suspensions this season. In a letter to union head Donald Fehr last month,
Selig suggested that starting in 2006, major league players be given 50-game
suspensions for a first positive test for steroids, 100-game penalties for a
second positive test and lifetime bans for a third. There are 162 games in a
season.

Selig also wants to ban amphetamines.

"Mr. Selig, you've come a long way," said Michigan Rep. Fred Upton.

Copyright + 2005, The Associated Press

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