Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act of 2019

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for her leadership on this issue, and I thank the members of the committee for their hard work.

Mr. Speaker, amateur and professional sports are an essential part of American society. We spend over $50 billion each year on sporting events. Billions more in revenue are generated from advertising, athlete endorsements, and broadcast rights of thousands of sporting events each year. The impact of sports in the United States is over half a trillion dollars, and the effects on local, State, national, and global economies are considerable.

In other words, there is a great deal at stake. The integrity of leagues, coaches, athletes, and their sponsors is critical. Governments around the world sponsor their athletes in amateur sports, most notably in the Olympics. Scandals over the past 20 years involving doping and the use of performance-enhancing drugs have tarnished the reputations of players and coaches, and especially clean athletes who follow the rules and do not use prohibited drugs and substances.

The widespread doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics led to Russia being banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics. Subsequent investigation revealed a massive government-sponsored doping program where a Russian drug testing laboratory director used a three-drug cocktail of anabolic steroids to boost the performance of Russian athletes. Even more distressing, Russian intelligence operatives switched the steroid-tainted urine samples of the Russian athletes with clean samples. In the end, 43 Olympic medals were stripped from Russia for doping violations.

Federal law already contains penalties for kickbacks, bribery, corruption, foreign corrupt practices, and related crimes. However, it does not criminalize fraud through doping in international sport competitions, nor does it provide protections for the victims of doping fraud, such as athletes and whistleblowers.

H.R. 835 would enhance America's jurisdiction over international sports and help ensure the integrity of athletes and coaches in the Olympics and similar competitions.

Doping fraud conspiracies harm clean athletes and their coaches and cosponsors. They also defraud those who pay to watch sporting events and set an extremely poor example for our youth. It is time for the United States to join several European nations and add another means by which criminals engaged in doping fraud can be held accountable for their actions and no longer tarnish the honor and image of clean athletes.

This bill is a unique example of bipartisan efforts. I am encouraged by the ability of Members and staff from both sides of the aisle to craft legislation which will help root out fraud and corruption in international sports.

As the lead sponsor of several other bipartisan pieces of legislation, I look forward to finding more common ground for the benefit of the American people. I am pleased to support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it, as well.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. CLINE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess).

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Mr. CLINE. Mr. Speaker, in closing, again, I would say that this is an important bill designed to restore integrity to international sport competition. Right now, you only need to look outside in the Nation's Capital to see that World Series fear has hit our Nation's Capital. As we all watch with enthusiasm, we are reminded of the noble goals and noble values inherent in sport and competition and look to preserve those goals and values with the passage of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge its passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia for his kind remarks and support. And I thank Dr. Burgess, as well, for his involvement and commitment to this legislation. I also thank the chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee for really helping us move this bill very quickly. I thank the staffs of both the majority and the minority who have worked so very hard on moving this bill forward. And I acknowledge, in particular, the staff on the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security for their particular help and leadership on this.

Mr. Speaker, I am glad that we are talking about healthy sports and the recognition and the acceptance, if you will, of those who worked so long and so hard, many from their earlier years, to be Olympians, to play baseball, basketball, football, track, and the many sports that come under the Olympic mandate.

This bill, in particular, I wish to remind our colleagues, again, provides relief, but we really hope it is a deterrent and works to move other nations, the European Union, to be able to establish these kinds of responses to doping.

This act establishes criminal penalties for participating in a scheme in commerce to influence a major international sports competition through prohibitive substances or methods. It also provides restitution to victims of such conspiracy, athletes in particular, many of whom have suffered great losses because of this fraud.

It protects whistleblowers from retaliation by criminalizing participation in international doping fraud conspiracies. Whistleblowers will be included under existing witness protection laws.

It establishes coordination and sharing information with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to establish a matrix, if you will, a format.

I want to say that we all have an interest in ensuring our country and our athletes are not defrauded in international sports competitions. This bipartisan bill would fill an unfortunate gap with regard to U.S. law enforcement to hold accountable those who engage in such fraud.

It would also serve as a deterrent to those considering engaging in doping-fraud conspiracies and would provide a mechanism to gain visibility in a wider net of international corrupt practices that are connected to doping fraud.

I leave my colleagues with the very visual that so many of us, if we were not able to be at the Olympics, watched as our athletes were able to stand under our flag, the emotion of that moment, the emotion of the athletes, the emotion of those watching, the excitement of standing in honor of your Nation and representing your Nation. Anyone who has talked to an Olympian knows that that is one of their greatest honors. Let's give them that honor fair and square, if you will.

Since we believe in fairness and squareness in all of our athletic endeavors here in the United States, I certainly will end, as my friend commented here on the floor, I will end with the healthiness and the upstanding of the World Series and those who will play in it.

I will take the opportunity at this time to say: Go Astros.

I urge my colleagues to support the underlying, commonsense measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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