Approps language comes on heels of Cruz-Cantwell probe into World Anti-Doping Agency

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today issued the following statement about the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriations Act. The FSGG bill includes a provision that Sen. Cruz had called for and is aimed at holding the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accountable for allowing Chinese swimmers, who tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs, to compete at the summer Olympics.

“The World Anti-Doping Agency should not see a dime of U.S. taxpayer money until WADA is fully transparent about the swimmer doping scandal. WADA is refusing to hold certain athletes accountable for cheating. It’s infuriating to turn on the Paris Olympics and see events with Chinese swimmers who have blatantly run afoul of rules meant to protect the integrity of competition. I commend Senators Murray, Collins, Van Hollen, and Hagerty for including language in this funding bill to ensure WADA quickly returns to its mission of providing worldwide, independent anti-doping oversight across all athletic competitions.”

BACKGROUND:

In April, the New York Times detailed how 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned substance Trimetazidine prior to the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. Following the positive tests, WADA declined to make them public or challenge the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency’s (CHINADA) assertion that the swimmers accidentally ingested the banned drugs during a hotel stay. The swimmers won several medals, including three golds, besting American swimmer Katie Ledecky. 

In June, Sen. Cruz was joined by Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell in demanding WADA provide a series of documents regarding the 2021 doping case, and called for action to guarantee fair competition for Team USA during the upcoming Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“WADA’s decision to accept CHINADA’s findings stands in stark contrast to its decision to challenge an initial exoneration by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency of a figure skater who tested positive for Trimetazidine because of ‘food/environmental contamination’ less than six months later,” they wrote. 

“The Russian figure skater was ultimately disqualified from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and sanctioned with a four-year period of ineligibility. Meanwhile, many of the same Chinese swimmers who tested positive for Trimetazidine before the 2021 games are expected to compete in Paris this summer.[…]

“Athletes are rightly concerned about fair competition at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is imperative that WADA do everything in its power to ensure fair competition.” 

Sens. Cruz and Cantwell requested that WADA provide the Commerce Committee with all documents received from CHINADA related to the incident and its full case file. WADA has refused to comply.

WADA receives its American funding under the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act. In 2023, the United States provided WADA with more than $3.4 million, the largest individual nation contribution and representing 15% of WADA’s total contributions from public authorities. The US contribution is nearly five times the contribution given by China. The United States does not have a single representative on WADA’s 42-person Foundation Board, WADA’s highest decision-making body. 

The language included in the FSGG Committee report states:

World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] Governance.—The Committee is deeply concerned over allegations that WADA failed to take ap- propriate action in response to positive tests of a prohibited sub- stance (trimetazidine, also known as TMZ) among 23 Chinese swimmers in January 2021. The Committee notes that the FBI and the Justice Department have opened a criminal investigation into this matter. The Committee fervently believes that WADA and other anti-doping stakeholders must take action to vastly improve their management of such cases in the future through internal re- forms, changes to the World Anti-Doping Code, and a deeper study of this and other contamination cases. American athletes, and athletes around the world, need to be confident that WADA and all national anti-doping organizations will take a fair, consistent, and transparent approach to positive drug tests, wherever they occur. The Committee is pleased that ONDCP, as President of the American Sports Council (Consejo Americano del Deporte or CADE), serves on WADA Executive Committee and directs ONDCP to continue pushing WADA to strengthen its disclosure requirements in instances of positive test findings and its uniform application of anti-doping protocol so WADA can fully be fit for purpose as the single global regulator of doping in sports. ONDCP is directed to brief the Committees no later than 60 days after enactment of this act on the status of WADA’s response to this crisis of confidence in WADA and the steps WADA is taking to strengthen key components of the organization.

The Committee expects WADA to: (1) make detailed information about the circumstances related to WADA’s handling of the case regarding the 23 Chinese swimmers available to the public; (2) identify and implement a process that will significantly improve how alleged contamination cases are handled both by WADA and by national anti-doping organizations, such as the establishment of a WADA independent expert committee with decision-making authority on all positive tests that do not result in an anti-doping rule violation and public announcement; (3) establish mechanisms to ensure that the WADA Executive Committee receives timely notification of any alleged contamination cases involving multiple athletes in the future; and (4) have an outside audit performed of WADA.

The Committee includes language allowing ONDCP to provide up to the level requested for WADA dues and directs that, no less than 30 days prior to obligating funds to WADA, ONDCP shall submit a spending plan and explanation of the proposed uses of these funds to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. The Committee will evaluate WADA’s further actions and reforms in response to its handling of this matter, which will be taken into consideration in deciding a final fiscal year 2025 WADA Dues funding level.

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