100 things Congress could do that would matter more to me than steroids in baseball

by emptypockets

The House spent some quality time this week with Roger Clemens at hearings that occupied both the attention of Representative Henry Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as well as a big chunk of my morning paper's front page. These hearings were, to all extents and purposes, completely useless.

Leaving aside the fact that Congress has not seen fit to include baseball under the activities it regulates as interstate commerce (at least to my shaky understanding, as of 1972's Flood v. Kuhn) and therefore has given itself no jurisdiction over the sport, leaving aside that other star entertainers like 50 Cent, Wyclef Jean and Timbaland have also been accused of steroid use but have not been pulled before Congress (and that's not to mention pro wrestling), leaving aside that both Waxman and Clemens now say the hearings were unnecessary -- leaving aside all of that -- whether pro athletes or other entertainers use steroids is simply not something that's at the top of my priority list, and certainly not what I want my Congress to work on.

If Congress has run out of ideas for what to do, or finds itself unsure where my priorities lie, here are 100 things Congress could work on that would matter more to me than investigating steroids in baseball.

1. Collect and release the names, locations, and occupants of all secret US prisons
2. Collect and release lists and manifests of all extraordinary rendition flights
3. Collect and release all documents petrtaining to interrogation of suspected terrorists
4. Collect and release the contents of the TSA's no-fly list, with explanations
5. Establish a fast and easy way for passengers to clear themselves from the no-fly list
6. Impose harsh penalties on predatory lenders. People who have declared bankruptcy should not be getting pre-approved credit cards
7. Collect and release lists of all US citizens whose telecommunications have been monitored without a warrant
8. Investigate how every contractor in Iraq used the funds they received
9. Same for New Orleans
10. What was that thing on the President's back in the 2004 debates, anyway?
11. Fix voting - investigate Diebold
12. Legalize federally funded stem cell research
13. Give NIH enough money to keep pace with inflation. A little extra wouldn't hurt, while they're at it
14. Establish federal controls over direct-to-consumer genetic testing, which is now a patchwork of state regulations (where any exist at all)
15. Establish federal science education standards that would remove intelligent design from the curricula of districts that accept federal funds
16. Fix the alternative minimum tax
17. Determine who knew what when during Representative Mark Foley's sex abuse of underage pages
18. Undo the Bush tax cuts
19. Establish a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq
20. Release all documents pertaining to the closed-door investigation of the Utah mine collapse
21. Legalize pot. Or criminalize booze and tobacco. Whatever. Just make it consistent
22. Regulate how many hours in a row a doctor may be required to work
23. Investigate the Pentagon's order for substandard helmets for our troops
24. Close gun law loopholes
25. Convert all federal buildings to compact fluorescent lights (and other energy-efficient practices)
26. Completely scrap the multi-billion dollar missile defense plans
27. Stop horse slaughter once and for all
28. While you're at it, stop the capture and transport of pigeons from NYC to Pennsylvania. I saw a guy net about 30 pigeons and take them into a plain white van yesterday while I was having lunch. I'm not in love with pigeons, but that's just animal cruelty
29. End canned hunts, too. No one needs that
30. Reinstate your own Office of Technology Assessment
31. Net Neutrality
32. Adopt the Pew Marine Conservation recommendations
33. Also, their recommendations on fuel efficiency standards
34. And, did we do all the 9/11 Commission recommendations yet?
35. Remember the anti-trust case against Microsoft that Bush's DOJ dropped? How about some anti-trust hearings before they buy Yahoo?
36. In fact, go ahead and tighten the regulations on media ownership and conglomeration in general
37. Put pressure on China to stop its oil-weapons trade with Sudan
38. Equal rights for same-sex couples
39. Lengthen the waiting period between federal employment and lobbying to slow down the lobbyists' revolving door
40. Give residents of Washington, DC voting representation in Congress
41. Digitize the holdings of the Library of Congress and make full text searchable online
42. Daily podcasts of Congressional floor debate, itemized by topic
43. Set aside 0.1% of the federal budget and let the taxpayers decide how to spend it
44. Inspect cargo coming into US ports, stop building the useless Mexican fence
45. Let gays in the military serve openly
46. The Army's minimum enlistment age is 17. So lower the voting age to 17 as well
47. Impeach Bush and Cheney
48. Tax all dividend income at the same rate as earned salary income
49. Close corporate tax loopholes
50. Nationwide moratorium on the death penalty
51. Standardize Uprising Farm's workaround so food stamp benefits can easily be used to get local and organic foods to low-income families
52. Rep. Oberstar's plan for bridge repair and reinforcement
53. It's been two and a half years and we still need a Hurricane Katrina Commission report
54. Forbid an unprovoked attack on Iran -- or anywhere else
55. Expressly allow civil and federal prosecution of phone companies who violated consumer privacy
56. Require pharmacists to fill prescriptions, personal religious dogma notwithstanding
57. Get Cheney's energy policy records
58. Begin impeachment proceedings against any member of the administration who condones torture -- or doesn't know what it is
59. Find Mukasey in contempt for refusing to prosecute torture
60. Stop gerrymandering: Find an automated, objective way to draw congressional districts
61. What the hell happened to Nalini Ghuman?
62. Save student loans
63. Follow Spitzer's push to break up the big bond insurers

...well, that should keep them busy for a while, and I'm sure you can round out the list in the comments below. These items are what I could come up with off the top of my head in a an hour or so. Someone like emptywheel who understands what really needs to be investigated, or many of you well-informed policy wonks, could write a Congressional to-do list even quicker, and it would be better and longer. The list you would make would probably, like mine, have some things that are crucial and some that are more like pet causes -- but I doubt sports steroids would appear anywhere among any of ours.

This week, after Congress finished wasting time with Clemens, they went on a 12-day vacation. When they get back, recharged and rested, it will be time for real policy making. One of the first items on their agenda is to find out whether racehorses use steroids.

p.s. I'm not kidding

Comments

[P J Evans]

Better testing for 'mad cow'. They won't allow smaller companies to pay for testing, because it makes the big feed yards look bad.

re #27: Best suggestion I've seen is to declare horsemeat as humanly consumable, which puts transportation of horses for slaughter under the same rules as those for cattle and sheep: they have to have food, water, rest, and exercise while being moved to a slaughterhouse, and, IIRC, those that die in the process have to be accounted for. It's more humane that what they get now. That most of us probably won't eat horsemeat (which I understand is actually pretty good when handled properly, but has a short life compared to beef) shouldn't prevent this kind of maneuver.

[truthseeker]

Why not start at the beginning. Who is responsible for the controlled demolitions of the three world trade buildings? It was most convenient for Bush. It triggered most of the 100 things on your list. Why is there still an almost total media blackout on this obvious treason?

[emptypockets]

truthseeker, because most people are not blindered conspiracy theorists. Nor am I

[Tony Cobitz]

Excellent list; thanks for compiling it.

One very small nit to pick: racehorses have been (legally) given steroids in the U.S. for a very long time. The item on the agenda to which you refer will be about whether they should continue to be allowed.

Regards,

Tony C.

[emptypockets]

good point, Tony, I had missed that. It seems that there is a long history of (undiscouraged) steroid treatment of racehorses that more recently turned into a ban on steroid treatments within one month prior to competition (that sounds fairly arbitrary, not sure what its goal is) and may turn into a general ban. Congress may be investigating this steroid policy itself, or may be looking to find out more about the testing model used by a sport that has been self-policing relatively assiduously for longer than most.

I guess two points, here. First, I'm not sure what it says that racehorses and human athletes are being placed on a similar level. I'm not sure it's good for either of them.

Second, all that aside, I still don't see why Congress wants to get involved here. Maybe my problem is that I have trouble distinguishing professional athletes from other entertainers, who have a long and storied history with performance enhancing drugs -- even the name makes it clear that what a pro athlete does, is to perform. Certainly an entertainer like Jimi Hendrix had his performances regularly enhanced with drugs, and I wouldn't have expected Congress to investigate.

[truthseeker]

Emptypockets, I am not asking you to be a theorist. I am asking to be objective, unemotional. Pretend you have never heard of the 'theory' just go to google videos and watch. Allow your eyes and reasoning ability to really see.
Never before or since in the history ofsteelbuildings has such an event occured. No plane hit building seven yet it fell into itself cleanly just like the other two. You, like most other Americans have not faced the stark truth.you are in denial.
If, after seeing the evidence, and there is lots of it, you still don't accept it, fine. But give your intellect a fighting chance, give it knowledge from which to feed. Denial is not healthy for you or the country. A lie started the Vietnam war and now the Iraq war. Leaders got away with their treason twice. Do you suppose there won't be a third?

[G. Florence Scott]

Good job. Although I don't agree with everything on your list, it is still a good job. I am so glad there are people who think about the state of things instead of run the other way when a political or even remotely similar to a political comment is made. Sites like The Next Hurrah are my rescue remedy.

Here are some more things Congress could do instead of mess around hearing about athelete's steroid use:

#64. Take seriously those who bring whistleblower complaints to your attention, particularly those that concern national security or public safety.

#65. Then give REAL protections to those people while you investigate and take action on their complaints.

#66 Investigate the so called "No Child Left Behind" version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and it's punative method of enforcement, which appears to this observer to be a prescription for assuring no one will escape failure, and do what some conservatives have wanted to do for years...get rid of public education and let them keep their money. They don't care about the good of the whole or the future of our country, and don't want to spend a penny on other people's children anyway.

#67. Investigate how much of our resources go outside of the country and compare that to what it would take to fix all of the things, infrastructure, shrinking government employee roles to do all the jobs that need doing, and then compare the two lists and amounts.

#68. Investigate why there is such a difference and such confusion between defense agencies and non defense government agencies when it comes to interpreting and administering security law and policy. The right hand doesn't know what the left is doing and vice versa. It is like closing and securing the north barn door while your evil twin is leaving the South barn door open to the wolves.

#69. How about investigating our MAJOR trade deficit, created and continually worsened by allowing American companies to move jobs overseas and become international entities who have no loyalty to the U.S. whatsoever.

#70. Investigate all the growing monopoly(s) including media as mentioned before, as well as industries, such as defense and aerospace, which have also been allowed to gobble up their competition to the point where our government is over a barrel when trying to stop corruption and greed, as there is no one else to give the work to but the one mega-industry. When you finally see the problem, then do something about it. Break them up into smaller companies; it's been done before. Besides cleaning things up it might strengthen our economy with renewed competition, creativity and productivity. Remember?

#

[G. Florence Scott]

#71. Investigate the corruption in the Office of Special Counsel and then disband them and create an office under Congress which may operate without manipulation from the members of the executive branch, or their appointed managers, so that federal employees may finally get a fair investigation and hearing of their complaints and so called "whistleblower" situations.

[Tony C.]

Just to follow-up on the racehorse tangent...

"Second, all that aside, I still don't see why Congress wants to get involved here."

I certainly agree, in principle, though as I work in the Thoroughbred industry, I actually
consider it to be a good thing in this narrow context. I won't bore your readers with
my reasoning, though will be happy to elaborate if anyone is interested.

Regards,

Tony C.

[emptypockets]

Tony, an insider's expertise is always appreciated. Do you see federal involvement in thoroughbred racing as an issue of protecting the sport's integrity (seems to me that should be left to the trade associations and fans) or as an animal welfare issue (which is fine, but seems to me I'd start with rodeos and, as mentioned above, the food industry)? I guess the question is, whatever good it brings the industry, could it get done better or cheaper at a more local level?

[Tony C.]

The shortest of the short version goes something like this:

Federal involvement in Thoroughbred racing is ostensibly about protecting the sport's integrity. And, at the risk of sounding cynical (which I am), it would never have come about were it not for the spotlight which has been thrown on Baseball.

The U.S. Thoroughbred industry is remarkably unregulated. And, I'm sorry to say, the power brokers of the industry (i.e. major breeders) have great incentive to keep the status quo. Therefore they are now, suddenly, showing concern about steroid use in racehorses, because the last thing they want is the government looking into their dirty laundry and – heaven forbid – regulating.

Steroids are a problem, but much like certain other sports (e.g. track and field and cycling), they are hardly the only performance enhancing substances being used. EPO and other cutting edge forms of blood-doping are probably the most insidious. But steroids are a problem, especially with regards to their use in very young horses (which are pumped up in order to sell well at auction).

You see, in contrast to sports in which the athletes are human, drug use in Thoroughbred racing directly translates into huge money for breeders. Leading sires, for example, command stud fees of $300-500,000, and are often bred to well over 100 mares a year. Do the math.

Now, with respect to your logical question about whether or not regulation could be done better or cheaper at a more local level, the answer is no. And that answer is a result of the fact that the U.S. Thoroughbred industry is, and has long been terribly splintered. Each state has different rules and regulations, and the industry has – to it's great detriment – never formed an effective oversight body to deal with these sorts of important issues.

I could go on and on, but for the moment I will say this: I don't have any expectations that federal involvement will take any form other than superficial hearings. But the threat of further involvement is what I see as being beneficial, as it will force the industry to take some positive steps (steroid use is already being seriously reduced and regulated for the first time).

Regards,

Tony C.

[Alyx]

I as well was disgusted with the amount of time CONGRESS wasted on such nonsense. Is this really the role of Congress? I would think it would be a committee involved in the Sporting community namely the Baseball league or whatever (not a sports enthusiast). I agree there are more impelling things worrying our country besides who injected what into whomevers rearend...gezus..did we look stupid again to the rest of the world? I would think jobs leaving the country or the housing morgage situation would be more important.

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