WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback today, along with Sen. John McCain, reintroduced the Amateur Sports Integrity Act, which would ban gambling on college sports and combat athletes' use of performance enhancing drugs.

"I am pleased to reintroduce today with Senator McCain, the Amateur Sports Integrity Act. This legislation combats the corruptive influence of legal gambling on high school, college, and amateur sports, and it provides for an investigation of performance enhancing drug use by athletes.

"The Amateur Sports Integrity Act serves two purposes. First, it bans the continued and unseemly practice of legal wagering on high school, college, and amateur sports at the expense of the achievements of our nation's student and amateur athletes.

"This bill closes the loophole in the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act that allows legal sports betting in Nevada to negatively impact student athletics in other states. It is supported by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which represents more than 1,000 colleges and universities nationwide. In addition, numerous college coaches support this effort. I can think of no better advocate than the coaches who spend time day-in and day-out with the athletes negatively affected by sports gambling.

"My continuing efforts on this issue are in direct response to the recommendation made by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC), which in 1999 concluded a two-year study on the impact of legalized gambling in our country. The Commission's recommendation called for a complete ban on all legalized gambling on amateur sports. It also recognized the potential harm of legalized gambling by stating that sports gambling 'can serve as a gateway behavior for adolescent gamblers, and can devastate individuals and careers.' The Amateur Sports Integrity Act will serve notice that betting on college games or amateur athletics is not only inappropriate but can result in these significant social costs.

"The bill also combats the use of performance enhancing drugs by athletes through a new grant program to be administered by the National Institute of Science and Technology. This program will support research on the use of performance enhancing drugs, and methods of detecting their use. Quite simply, this legislation will help us find out who is cheating and how they are doing it, so we can disqualify their dishonorable efforts to compete.

"I am hopeful that the Amateur Sports Integrity Act will prove to be a major step toward restoring the integrity of college sports," said Brownback.