Pro Leagues, Athletes Still on Specters Hot Seat

The Sept. 29 hearing by the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Crime and Drugs focused on steroid adulteration in products marketed as dietary supplements, but presiding subcommittee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) still seemed hell-bent on taking U.S. professional sports leagues to task, along with those athletes who do not take responsibility for their failed doping tests.

After presenting testimony that was fairly critical of the regulation of the dietary supplement industry, Travis Tygart, CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which oversees Olympic athletes, faced some pointed questions from Specter. Responding to questions about working with professional sports leagues, Tygart told Specter and his fellow hearing panel member Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that the pro leagues are part of USADAs effort to educate athletes on managing everything they ingest, relative to the respective list of banned substances maintained by the different leagues. However, he noted the leagues have not yet adopted the World Anti-Doping Code, which is a gold standard. Specters quick why not? response was met with a big, fat I dont know why from Tygart. We wish they would [adopt the code}, he added.

Specter and Hatch also asked if Tygart and USADA felt athletes like Major League Baseball players Mark McGwire and J.C. Romeroboth failed steroid/performance-enhancing drug testswere adequately informed of the dangers and risks of taking the products they took. Tygart said he believed both athletes had the tools needed to avoid ingesting prohibited sub stancesthe andro taken by McGwire wasnt banned until after his failed test.

In fact, Tygart told the panel USADA recommends athletes not take any supplements, due to what he called poor regulations for supplements, but he said the leagues properly educate the athletes and even have hotlines players can call before they take a supplement. Tygart also stated he did not believe every athlete that blames a failed doping test on supplements, although he referenced a few recent cases where a supplement allegedly tested positive for adulteration, including the case of Olympic swimmer Kicker Vencil.

Specter appeared particularly concerned about the case involving a couple of Minnesota Viking football players who faced league suspension after testing positive for a banned diuretic contained in a weight-loss supplement. An earlier federal court decisionsincluding an injunction prohibiting the NFL  from suspending the players and a ruling that the remaining legal issues need be decided in state courtwere most recently upheld by a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Some legal experts, including Specter, fear this sends a message that federal judiciary does not preempt state court on such matters. In the current hearing, Specter asked Tygart, rather rhetorically, if he thought Congress had the power to supersede or preempt the state court. He also asked what Tygart thought the potential impact this 8^th circuit ruling could have on anti-doping efforts. I think it is potentially big, Tygart said. It could impact the effectiveness of the [anti-doping] programs.

Why Congress would want to interject itself in the case of two NFL players facing suspension is a fair question, but it is clear Specter is interested in reminding everyone of Congressional power and authority, and this hearing on steroids in supplements didnt appear to make any more than a dent in his interest in some kind of premarket approval for bodybuilding supplements, which would be a difficult segment to define.