By BRIAN COSTELLO
June 13, 2008
Congress revived its interest in steroid use in baseball yesterday with letters to commissioner Bud Selig and players' union head Donald Fehr that ask questions about their testimony three years ago.
Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Tom Davis (R-Va.), leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, co-authored the letters that seek information about the 2004 drug-testing program that came to light in the Mitchell Report.
Selig and Fehr both testified before the committee in 2005 and pointed to the 2004 results as evidence that steroid use was down in the sport.
In the letters, Waxman and Davis write about "two pieces of new information about the MLB testing program that was in effect in 2004" that were in the Mitchell Report, "that the random testing program was suspended for a large part of the 2004 baseball season" and "that players may have been told of upcoming tests."
Selig and Fehr said the program was suspended in 2004 after the BALCO investigation began. It is not known how long the gap in testing was.
Yesterday's letters have a list of questions for the two MLB leaders, and asks for answers no later than June 26.
