Congress Keeps Heat On Steroids
With Congress and Major League Baseball embroiled in a fight over steroids, the chairman of a House panel said Thursday that all major U.S. sports leagues should work toward a single testing plan.
"Our elite athletic organizations, both professional and amateur, should establish uniform, world-class, drug-testing standards that are as consistent and robust as our criminal laws in this area," said Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. "Nothing less should be tolerated."
Stearns' comments came at the opening of a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee he chairs. Labor lawyers from Major League Baseball and the National Football League were to testify later.
The panel also was scheduled to hear from Donald Hooton of Plano, Texas, whose son was a steroid user and committed suicide, and Dr. Ralph Hale, chairman of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees drug testing for Olympic sports.
Prior to the hearing, Stearns said the goal is to learn more about steroid use.
"Are they being used in high school? Are they being used in college? Are they being used in professional sports? And what are we doing do stop this, because it is a felony? What is the baseball commissioner doing?" he said.
Another House panel issued subpoenas Wednesday calling for Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and five other baseball stars to testify at a March 17 hearing. The House Government Reform Committee also demanded a variety of documents and records of baseball's drug tests.
The move came less than two months after baseball and its players hailed a new, get-tough policy on banned substances and just a week after testing began at spring training.
Baseball balked at the subpoenas. Stanley Brand, a lawyer for the commissioner's office, said the committee had no jurisdiction, was trying to violate baseball's first amendment privacy rights, and was attempting to "satisfy their prurient interest into who may and may not have engaged in this activity."
Reacting to Brand's comments, committee spokesman David Marin said: "Mr. Brand has his facts wrong. He failed to recognize that House rules give this committee the authority to investigate any matter at any time, and we are authorized to request or compel testimony and document production related to any investigation. It's a shame that Major League Baseball has resorted to hiding behind 'legalese' — and inaccurate 'legalese' at that."
Another congressional hearing on steroids was scheduled for Thursday before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, though no players were called to testify there.
The other players subpoenaed to appear next week were Jose Canseco — who recently published a book outlining allegations of steroid use by McGwire and others — Jason Giambi, Curt Schilling, Rafael Palmeiro and Frank Thomas. Also called were players' association head Donald Fehr, baseball executive vice presidents Rob Manfred and Sandy Alderson, and San Diego Padres general manager Kevin Towers.
Canseco, Fehr and Manfred have agreed to testify, with Manfred appearing on behalf of commissioner Bud Selig. Before the subpoenas were issued, Brand told the committee the other players were declining invitations to appear.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the hearing will take place as scheduled.
CBS News Analyst Andrew Cohen said the subpoenaed players have several possible options:
"Since steroid use is not illegal, you would think that these athletes and baseball executives would have no problem testifying. But there is a huge public relations issue for baseball in all of this," notes Cohen, "and these stars have to go back into play after their testimony. So they are really caught in a tough spot."
Canseco has written a much-talked-about book that purports to tell the truth about his own use of anabolic steroids. In an interview with "60 Minutes", he admitted to using them for most of his career and said that "a lot of other players" did as well.
Under pressure from Congress and under the shadow of a grand jury investigation into an alleged steroid-distribution ring, Major League Baseball and its players' association agreed in January to a tougher steroid-testing program. The agreement will suspend first-time offenders for 10 days and randomly test players year-round.