WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, today introduced legislation that would authorize continued federal funding for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). USADA is responsible for ensuring that U.S. athletes participating in the Olympics are not using steroids and other performance enhancing drugs.
"Much attention has recently been paid to professional athletes that have been found to be using steroids, but the increasing number of young athletes using these performance enhancing drugs has not received the same public scrutiny," Grassley said. "The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has not failed to take notice and take action. This bill will make sure they can continue to prevent and stop the use of performance enhancing drugs at the youth and amateur sports level."
As the anti-doping agency for the United States Olympic movement since 2000, USADA is responsible for ensuring that U.S. athletes participating in Olympic competition do not use performance enhancing drugs. USADA does this through testing, research, education and adjudication.
USADA conducts nearly 6,500 random drug tests on athletes every year and has made anti-doping presentations to over 3,000 athletes and coaches last year alone. The Agency prevented more than a dozen U.S. athletes from participating in the Athens Olympic Games last summer because of drug use.
USADA also provided more than $3 million in grants for anti-doping research over the past two years, which is more than any other anti-doping agency in the world.
"Ensuring the continued strength of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is only part of the solution to the growing problem of steroid use by young people. We need to make sure parents and coaches are aware of the dangers an on the look-out for the warning signs. Performance enhancing drugs are too damaging to young people for parents and coaches to not be involved," Grassley said.
Grassley has been working to address the growing problem of steroid abuse by high school and college athletes. Last year he chaired a hearing examining this growing problem and highlighted the easy access to steroids for these young athletes, including their availability on E-Bay. E-Bay has since agreed to step up its self-monitoring to make sure these drugs are not available on the popular site.
Grassley was joined by Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware, John McCain of Arizona and Ted Stevens of Alaska in introducing the bill.