Career home run leader Hank Aaron and four other baseball Hall of Famers planned to accompany commissioner Bud Selig on his latest trip to Capitol Hill to discuss steroids.
Selig, Major League Baseball players’ association chief executive Donald Fehr, and commissioners and union leaders from the NFL, NBA and NHL will testify today at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing.
The hearing was called to discuss two proposed Senate bills that would standardize drug testing and punishment in major professional sports. Three similar bills have been introduced in the House.
Selig had invited Aaron, Ryne Sandberg, Phil Niekro, Robin Roberts and Lou Brock to attend the hearing, a baseball official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to disclose that information.
A sixth former baseball player will be present today, and he will be asking questions: Sen. Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican and former pitcher elected to the Hall of Fame in 1996.
He’s not a member of the Commerce Committee but was invited to participate because he sponsored the Professional Sports and Integrity Act. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, will run the hearing; he sponsored the Clean Sports Act, a companion to the House bill introduced by Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis.
Both Senate bills call for a two-year suspension the first time an athlete fails a drug test and a lifetime ban after a second failed test. The four leagues whose leaders are appearing have less strict policies, though all have toughened or proposed toughening their penalties in recent months.
Bunning said he expects legislation to reach the floor of Congress before the end of the year.
Bunning was dismissive of Fehr’s offer to accept a 20-game penalty instead of 10 days for first-time steroid offenders, outlined Monday in a letter to Selig.
“Basically, he says, ‘In your face. Twenty games, take it or leave it.’ That’s completely unacceptable to the Congress,” Bunning said.
