Congress wants new steroids hearing

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

5:25 PM EST, December 13, 2007

WASHINGTON - Congress wants to hear more about the Mitchell Report on drug use in baseball.

About two hours after former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell released his findings, two congressmen at the forefront of Capitol Hill's involvement in the steroids issue asked Mitchell, baseball commissioner Bud Selig and union head Donald Fehr to testify at a House committee hearing next week.

California Democrat Henry Waxman and Virginia Republican Tom Davis -- the leaders of the panel that held the March 17, 2005, hearing at which Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa testified -- want to know "whether the Mitchell report's recommendations will be adopted and whether additional measures are needed," they said.

The legislators called for a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on Tuesday.

"This is a sad day for Major League Baseball, but a good day for integrity in sports. It's an important step towards the goal of eliminating the use of performance enhancing substances," Waxman and Davis said in a joint statement.

"The Mitchell report is sobering. ... It shows that everyone involved in Major League Baseball bears some responsibility for this scandal," they continued.

Waxman and Davis were among several members of the House and Senate who sponsored legislation in 2005, proposing to mandate stronger steroid testing and penalties for baseball and other U.S. professional sports leagues.

Another representative who sponsored a bill and held hearings on the topic in 2005, Florida Republican Cliff Stearns, called on Selig to resign.

"Certainly, a lack of leadership and oversight in MLB enabled these abuses to continue," Stearns said Thursday. "After 15 years of slow action, a new commissioner is needed to guide the league out of this era of drug abuse."

Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada were among the dozens of current and past All-Star players named in Mitchell's 409-page report after a 20-month investigation into the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

Palmeiro is mentioned in the report. He failed a drug test and was suspended by baseball a few months after his 2005 appearance before Congress, when he jutted a finger at lawmakers while testifying under oath, "I have never used steroids, period."