Committee to Compare Drug-Testing Policies

Congressmen looking into steroids in sports sent letters Tuesday to the heads of the NBA, NHL and five other groups asking for information about their drug-testing policies.

The House Government Reform Committee sent a similar request to the NFL last week.

“This is the compare-and-contrast phase of the investigation,” said David Marin, spokesman for committee chairman Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican.

During the panel’s 11-hour hearing on steroids in baseball last month, several lawmakers threatened federal legislation to govern drug testing in baseball and possibly all U.S. sports.

The seven letters sent Tuesday were addressed to NBA Commissioner David Stern, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Assn. of Tennis Professionals Chief Executive Mark Miles, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber, U.S. Soccer Federation President Bob Contiguglia, USA Track & Field Chief Executive Craig Masback and USA Cycling Chief Executive Gerard Bisceglia.

The officials were given an April 12 deadline for turning over copies of their sports’ current and past drug-testing policies and information about how those were negotiated.

The committee also asked for information such as the number of drug tests each year, the number of positive results and which substances are tested for. The letters specified that the committee wants “summary information, and does not require identification of individual players.”

“A majority of this stuff is already up on our website, and anything that’s not we’ll be more than happy to supply them,” ATP spokesman David Higdon said.

“The deadline’s a little tight, but we’ll do all we can.”