MLB Settles On Steroid Standards

50-Game Suspension For 1st Failed Test, Lifetime Ban After 3 Times

(CBS/AP) 
Bunning said he would wait to hear more about the deal before deciding whether to withdraw his legislation, Fuss reports.

"This is what I had hoped for all along, for the two private parties to come to an agreement on their own without Congress having to do it for them," he said, but added that the deal is "not as tough as I would like."

Davis didn't immediately address how the agreement might affect pending legislation but called it "the type of self-initiated action we were hoping for all along."

"While the new policy is not what it would be had I authored it, it is a much stronger policy, one with multiple random tests and far tougher penalties for even first-time offenders," he added.

Though steroids are a problem in many sports, baseball has been the focal point of congressional interest and pressure. As recently as 2004, there was no suspension for a first offense under the sport's steroid program. As recently as 2002, players weren't tested for steroids at all, unless there was cause.

Under the new deal, according to congressional aides, a first positive test for amphetamines will lead to mandatory additional testing, a second offense will draw a 25-game suspension, and a third offense gets 80 games.

A player will be tested during spring training physicals and at least once in the regular season, plus the possibility of random tests. The old agreement called for a minimum of one test from the start of spring training through the end of the regular season.