Lawmakers continue to press for action

WASHINGTON – Major League Baseball should enforce stronger rules against steroid abuse by players on its own, but Congress will require changes by law if necessary, leading lawmakers said Sunday.

Sen. John McCain, the driving force behind changing how baseball polices performance-enhancing drug use, said he believes President Bush would sign a bill into law.

“There’s not a doubt in my mind. He’d love to,” said McCain, R-Ariz., who accompanied Bush to Saturday’s Army-Navy college football game in Philadelphia.

He added that Bush, too, would prefer for baseball to act on its own.

“I know that the president would like to see it done through collective bargaining and decision made by owners and labor,” McCain said.

Other lawmakers, including the top Republican in the Senate and the House’s top Democrat, expressed similar sentiments as cries grew louder for baseball to act.

The executive board of the players’ union starts its annual meeting today in Phoenix with the steroid issue on its agenda.

Lawyers for baseball commissioner Bud Selig’s office and the union have met several times to discuss Selig’s repeated calls for more frequent testing and harsher penalties for steroid use.