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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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2 0 - 0 5 - 2 0 0 5 BALCO's impact on steroid controversy seen in hearings
By ELLIOTT ALMOND and SEAN WEBBY
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Another Washington lawmaker introduced legislation Thursday to toughen steroid testing in the major professional leagues, further evidence of BALCO Laboratories' impact on American sports.
Rep. John Sweeney, a New York Republican, proposed a bill authorizing the Federal Trade Commission to suspend play if a league doesn't adhere to a new, one-size-fits-all-leagues policy. His bill arrived in the U.S. House of Representatives a month after a similar one by Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida, chairman of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, which is examining the steroid issue.
It came on the day the House Committee on Government Reform criticized the NBA's drug program as inadequate and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue testified in yet another House hearing.
The Reform committee, led by Reps. Tom Davis of Virginia and Henry Waxman of Los Angeles, is expected to introduce a third steroid bill early next week. Davis and Waxman have a powerful ally in Arizona Sen. John McCain, as well as bi-partisan support. Their bill is expected to receive the most consideration by the Republican leadership.
Davis said during a hearing with the NBA that his group's legislation "will have more teeth than other bills introduced." Like Sweeney's, the bill would call on leagues to follow the Olympic model, which includes a two-year ban for a first offense and a lifetime ban for a second violation. Stearns' legislation offered similar language.
Ray Garibaldi of Petaluma, Calif., whose son used steroids while playing college baseball and killed himself in 2002, applauded the efforts. He testified before the House Reform committee in March. "It starts from the top down," Garibaldi said. "Things are changing, but pro sports are being shamed into it. Let's face it, they are there to make money, and if they can turn their heads and still get the product out, then that's the way it's going to be. But it's not going be that way anymore. We won't let them."
Although Sweeney's bill added to the congressional logjam, he told the Mercury News that someone needed to kick-start the action. "Holding hearings is all well and good...now it is time to act," Sweeney said of the multiple hearings involving officials from baseball, football, basketball and other professional sports.
Sweeney, who last year worked to add steroid precursors to the Controlled Substance Act, said Congress eventually would agree on a single, strong piece of legislation.
Lawmakers are hoping threats of action will prompt major sports to bring their policies in line with the World Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees Olympic drug testing. Tagliabue told Stearns' subcommittee that its bill was unnecessary for pro football, contending that the league aggressively polices itself. On a day filled with debate about steroids, the seventh elite track and field athlete linked to BALCO accepted a ban because of a drug violation. The resolution of the Michelle Collins' case was another sign that the Burlingame laboratory continues to play a central role in what has become a national issue.
Sweeney said the Internal Revenue Service investigation of BALCO that begin in 2002 and led to the indictments of four Bay Area men, including BALCO founder Victor Conte Jr., has helped propel the issue.
"No one would have suspected how widespread or how the culture of the entities involved were so part of the enabling of it all," he said.
The drug issue's status as a major media story has also made it highly politicized. A congressional source familiar with steroid investigation said some lawmakers are trying to wrest the spotlight, saying, "What you are seeing here is agenda envy."
Davis told NBA officials that although their sport is not experiencing the same suspicions as other leagues, "How do we know for sure there's no steroid problem if its testing policies are so weak?"
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