Sources: Second hearing set/ Subcommittee to talk USOC reform

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jul 10, 2003 | by MERI-JO BORZILLERI

A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee is planning to announce its second hearing on U.S. Olympic Committee reform in Washington, sources say.

The hearing before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection will likely take place at 10 a.m. Wednesday and will discuss pending legislation to rewrite the 1978 Amateur Sports Act that created the USOC. The House and U.S. Senate must approve the bill before it becomes law.

This is the fifth Congressional hearing on USOC reform in seven months. The Senate has held three.

Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., and Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., both Olympians, along with 2000 gold medal wrestler Rulon Gardner from Colorado Springs, testified at the first House hearing March 19. Wednesday's witness list has not been finalized, sources said.

"The primary purpose would be to learn more about the governance reform recommendations," said Darryl Seibel, USOC spokesman. He could not confirm the date.

Both a Senate-appointed independent commission and an internal USOC task force have submitted reform plans to the Senate. At a hearing June 24, Senate Commerce Committee chairman John McCain, R- Ariz., said he wanted to have a bill ready to be signed into law before Congress's August recess, which begins Aug. 2.

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