WASHINGTON (AFP) — US lawmakers want to conduct a new hearing early next year on performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball in the wake of Barry Bonds' perjury indictment and an upcoming investigation report.
Florida representative Cliff Stearns and Illinois reporesentative Bob Rush, the leaders from each US political party on the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, said they have concerns about anti-doping rules in the sport.
"I'm still concerned that MLB does not have in place a sound policy addressing steroid use in the sport," Stearns said in a statement.
Bonds, the US baseball home run king, was indicted Thursday for lying to a federal grand jury investigating the BALCO steroid scandal. He faces up to 30 years in prison. An arraignment is set for December 7 in San Francisco.
Also due before the end of the year is a report from former US Senator George Mitchell, who has spent the past 20 months looking into doping in the sport at the request of Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig.
"I believe another hearing should be held if the Mitchell report or the Bonds trial shows the use of steroids and other drugs among baseball players," Stearns said.
Rush told the Baltimore Sun newspaper in an e-mail that he thinks the time is right to bring Selig and other baseball officials back before the US Congress.
"I believe it's time we get a formal update on what progress is being made to eradicate steroids from all sports," Rush wrote.
Mitchell had been having trouble obtaining cooperation from players in his probe but lawmakers threatened action if there was no help from players.
Only minimal interviews have been conducted but the threat of action from US lawmakers, which helped spur union and ownership leaders into toughening an anti-doping policy enacted only in 2003, has meant little so far.
Any hearing held before the conclusion of legal action regarding Bonds would be unlikely to touch upon his situation.
A 2005 House of Representatives hearing saw retired baseball star Mark McGwire refuse to deny taking steroids under oath and Rafael Palmeiro shake his finger in denying any steroid use only to test positive five months later.
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