Would be interested in actual industry members' opinion of USADA taking oversight of med issues and drug testing

[Where_sMyWhite]

From Bloodhorse…

Revised legislation (not sure what was ‘revised’) of the Horseracing Integrity Act (H.R. 2651) would have the United States Anti-Doping Agency take oversight of medication issues and drug testing in horse racing.

HSUS and PETA all think it’s great (which to me may mean it is great or raise a red flag ).

For those of you in the industry, your opinion on this bill?

[Palm_Beach]

You can’t “have” the USADA do anything, they are a private agency, not part of the federal government. They have to agree, and would submit a bid. To clarify, they would only be involved in the testing aspect, not “medication issues” such as permitted/prohibited medications, withdrawal times, etc. Horse racing is regulated by state, and one of the current challenges is that medication rules differ between states. It would be a big step forward if all the states would adopt uniform medicaton rules.

[Where_sMyWhite]

Arrggghhhh…

HR-2651 from the 2015-2015 Congressional Session summary says (just the first paragraph).

[h=3]Shown Here:
Introduced in House (06/04/2015)[/h]
Eliminating Disparities in Diabetes Prevention, Access, and Care Act of 2015

This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to require the National Institutes of Health to: (1) expand, intensify, and support activities regarding prediabetes and diabetes, particularly type 2, in minority populations; (2) award grants for a mentoring program for health care professionals to be more involved in weight counseling, obesity research, and nutrition; (3) provide for the participation of minority health professionals in diabetes-focused research programs; and (4) award grants for programs to establish a pipeline from high school to professional school that will increase minority representation in diabetes-focused health fields.

I don’t know if bill numbers are “re-used” or not or just revised.

For the 2017-2018 Congressional Session there is no summary yet posted online (introduced just earlier this week).

[TABLE]
[TR]
Sponsor: [TD]Rep. Barr, Andy [R-KY-6] (Introduced 05/25/2017)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
Committees: [TD]House - Energy and Commerce[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
Latest Action: [TD]05/25/2017 Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. (All Actions)[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

HR-2651’s Title

[h=4]Official Title as Introduced:[/h] To improve the integrity and safety of horseracing by requiring a uniform anti-doping and medication control program to be developed and enforced by an independent Horseracing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority.

It appears to me that 2015-2016’s HR-2651 isn’t related at all to 2017-2018’s version.

It also appears that, not surprisingly, the BH article was not entirely correct… this bill calls for what appears to be a new entity… Horseracing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority and not the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

[Texarkana]

The government has done such a “wonderful” job regulating the walking horse industry. :eyeroll:

I imagine they’ll do an equivalent job with racing, even if it is a different branch doing the oversight. ****(see below)

But… there DOES need to be uniform policies on medications across all 50 states, and I assume that would be one benefit if the United States Anti-Doping Agency took over as opposed to allowing states to develop their own policies.

(****Why are tax payer dollars being spent on a nationwide anti-doping agency in the first place?)

[Laurierace]

Not exactly an answer to your question but I personally am very pro-lasix and would hate to see it banned but if that is what it takes to get uniform medication standards I could live with it. I agree wholeheartedly that PETA and the HSUS liking something is generally reason enough to not like something though.