WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. lawmakers who held a 2005 hearing on steroids in baseball that rattled the sport announced on Thursday another hearing on the topic next week, hours after the Mitchell Report named dozens of players as using the drugs.
Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California and Republican Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia set a hearing for Tuesday to examine what was being done to clean up the sport and stop the use of performance-enhancing substances.
“Everyone involved in Major League Baseball bears some responsibility for this scandal,” Waxman and Davis said in a joint statement.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, where Barry Bonds, among those named in the report, set the all-time home record this year, said, “Our children’s heroes cheated the game.”
“It is now the duty of the entire baseball community -- the commissioner, the owners, and the players -- to work to put an end to the steroids era, to regain the trust of the fans, and to restore baseball to its rightful place as the national pastime,” said Pelosi, a Democrat.
Waxman chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, with Davis the panel’s ranking Republican.
In March 2005, the committee heard from a lineup of baseball stars and executives about steroids and other performance-enhancing substances.
The proceedings drew headlines and helped prompt reforms and increased testing and penalties. It was followed up by an investigation at the request of Major League Baseball by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine.
Mitchell’s report called for unannounced, year-round steroid tests.
Waxman and Davis said they planned to invite Mitchell to the hearing, along with baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and Don Fehr, president of the Major League Players’ Association.
Editing by Peter Cooney
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