Hearing of House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection: United States Boxing Commission Act
HEARING OF HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, TRADE, AND CONSUMER PROTECTION: UNITED STATES BOXING COMMISSION ACT
March 3, 2005
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. Stearns. Let us start the subcommittee hearing. My colleagues, it was just last year that the subcommittee was honored by a visit from one of history's greatest heavyweight fighters, Muhammad Ali. Unfortunately, the account that he gave us about his sport--his beloved sport, was not full of tall tales about the rumble in the jungle or the thriller in Manila, but it was a call for additional Federal reforms in the sport of boxing and better protection for its outstanding athletes.
Mr. Ali told us in no uncertain terms that without further, Federal reforms, the sport of boxing was in grave danger of becoming irrelevant in the eyes of the public and permanently scarred by years of scandal and corruption. According to Muhammad Ali and many other well-known, champion boxers, the problems surrounding professional boxing are not only alienating its fan base, but also endangering many of its young and talented fighters, many of whom, of course, are from disadvantaged communities like Muhammad Ali, and all they want is a fair shot at a better life. As Muhammad told us ``for all of its difficulties, boxing is still a wonderful sport. It still attracts men and women from all walks of life to reach for the glory in the ring.''
For many, it is their first experience with really hard work, determination, and discipline. For still others, it remains the only way up and out from a life filled with bad choices, failure, or worse. Although a lot of a hard--a lot of work has been done to grant greater Federal oversight over boxing in America, the glamour and glitz of the big Vegas and Atlantic City bouts continue to obscure the fact that many, many everyday fighters, some 12,000 in the United States, are facing severe risk of injury and death as they compete in the roughly 1,000 professional bouts held in relative obscurity here in the United States, every year. And if that was not enough, those fighters who are lucky enough to avoid the extreme physical risks in the ring still face exploitation outside of it from the unsavory characters the sport continues to attract.
To its credit, Congress has been working for over 10 years, trying to reform the sport at the Federal level. 1996, Congress passed the Professional Boxing Safety Act that require that all professional boxing matches be conducted under supervision of an authorized State boxing commission. That law also created uniform registration and licensing and established safety standards. The Muhammad Ali Boxing Act of 2000 continued the Federal reform effort by prohibiting Federal--prohibiting financial conflicts of interest between boxing managers and promoters, requiring certain financial disclosures, and creating new restrictions on contracts between boxers and promoters and managers.
As we learned at our hearing last year, both of these laws have been relatively successful in policing boxing at the State and tribal level, in particular regarding the health and safety of boxers; but as several witnesses have also told us, the enforcement of these requirements is left to the States and tribal organizations, creating a patchwork of spotty enforcement, and there is ample opportunity, my colleagues, to beat the system and simply evade regulation. Last year's testimony was full of stories about the boxers who fall through the cracks and compete, unchecked, in jurisdictions that are less rigorous when they are banned from others.
For these and other reasons, I do believe that additional Federal oversight to police the sport of boxing will certainly improve the lives of ordinary boxers. That is why I, along with my college from Illinois, Ms. Schakowsky, have introduced the United States Boxing Commission Act, H.R. 1065. We believe this bill will create a new Federal Commission, the United States Boxing Commission, USBC, which will be located within the Department of Commerce. The United States Boxing Commission Act specifies the following in the bill: it requires the USBC to promulgate uniform standards for professional boxing and consultation--in consultation with the Association of Boxing Commissioners. It requires the USBC to oversee all professional boxing matches, except as otherwise determined. It require the USBC to work with the States and tribal organizations to improve the state of professional boxing in the United States, including creating new standards. It requires that boxers be licensed every 4 years. It also requires that all managers, promoters, and sanctioning organizations be licensed by the USBC every 2 years; this includes giving the USBC the authority to revoke or suspend a license for cause after the opportunity for a hearing. It allows the USBC to conduct investigations with full power of subpoena. It requires the USBC to maintain a unified, national, computerized registry for collecting, storing, retrieving information that is relevant to the boxing profession.
This is a tough bill, but it is for a tough sport, my colleagues. It is also a bill that strikes the right balance between the rights of local authorities to regulate sports activities in their communities and the clear need for uniform, Federal standards and enforcement for a dangerous and continued-problem-plague sport. I believe this bill is the necessary foundation to support the progress that has been made at the Federal level to protect the lives and health of these great, hard-working athletes. Passage will also ensure the reestablishment of the integrity and the honor of the great sport of boxing. With that, I would like to thank my distinguished panel for coming here this morning, and I look forward to their testimony. Ranking Member Schakowsky?
[The prepared statement of Hon. Cliff Stearns follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Clifford Stearns, Chairman, Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection
Good Morning. It was just last year that this Subcommittee was honored by a visit from the one of history's greatest, Muhammad Ali. Unfortunately, the account that the Greatest gave us about his beloved sport was not full of tall tales about the Rumble in the Jungle or the Thriller in Manila, rather it was a call for additional federal reforms in the sport of boxing and better protections for it's outstanding athletes. Mohammed Ali told us in no uncertain terms that without further federal reforms, the sport of boxing was in great danger of becoming irrelevant in the eyes of the public and permanently scarred by years of scandal and corruption. According to the Greatest and many other well-known champion boxers, the problems surrounding professional boxing are not only alienating its fan base but also endangering many of its young and talented fighters, many of whom are from disadvantaged communities like Mohammad Ali and just want a fair shot at making a better life. As Muhammad told us: ``For all its difficulties, boxing is still a wonderful sport. It still attracts men and women from all walks of life to reach for glory in the ring. For many it is their first experience with hard work, determination and discipline. For still others it remains the only way up and out from a life filled with bad choices, failure, or worse.''
Although a lot of work has been done to grant greater federal oversight over boxing in America, the glamour and glitz of the big Vegas and Atlantic City bouts continues to obscure the fact that many everyday fighters, some 12,000 in the U.S., are facing severe risk of injury and death as they compete in the roughly one thousand professional bouts held in relative obscurity here in the United States every year. And if that was not enough, those fighters who are lucky enough to avoid the extreme physical risks in the ring still face exploitation outside of it from the unsavory characters the sport continues to attract.
To its credit, the Congress has been working for over a decade trying to reform the sport at the federal level. In 1996, the Congress passed the Professional Boxing Safety Act that requiring that all professional boxing matches be conducted under supervision of an authorized state boxing commission. That law also created uniform registration and licensing and established minimum safety standards. The Muhammad Ali Boxing Act of 2000 continued the federal reform effort by prohibiting financial conflicts of interests between boxing managers and promoters, requiring certain financial disclosures, and creating new restrictions on contracts between boxers and promoters/managers.
As we learned at our hearing last year, both of these laws have been relatively successful in policing boxing at the state and tribal level, in particular regarding the health and safety of boxers. But as several witnesses also told us, the enforcement of these requirements is left to the states and tribal organizations creating a patchwork of spotty enforcement and ample opportunity to beat the system and evade regulation. Last year's testimony was full of stories about the boxers who fall through the cracks and compete unchecked in jurisdictions that are less rigorous when they are banned in others.
For these and other reasons, I do believe that additional federal oversight to police the sport of boxing will improve the lives of ordinary boxers. This is why I, along with my colleague from Illinois Ms. Schakowsky, have introduced the United States Boxing Commission Act, H.R. 1065. This bill will create a new Federal Commission, the United States Boxing Commission (USBC), which will be located within the Department of Commerce. The United States Boxing Commission Act specifies the following:
- Requires the USBC to promulgate uniform standards for professional boxing, in consultation with the Association of Boxing Commissioners.
- Requires the USBC to oversee all professional boxing matches, except as otherwise determined.
- Requires the USBC to work with the states and tribal organizations to improve the state of professional boxing in the Unites States, including creating new standards.
- Requires that boxers be licensed every four years, and also requires that all managers, promoters, and sanctioning organizations be licensed by the USBC every two years. This includes giving the USBC the authority to revoke or suspend a license for cause after the opportunity for a hearing.
- Allows the USBC to conduct investigations with full power of subpoena.
- Requires the USBC to maintain a unified national computerized registry for collecting, storing, and retrieving information related to professional boxing.
This is a tough bill for a tough sport. It is also a bill that strikes the right balance between the rights of local authorities to regulate sports activity in their communities and the clear need for uniform federal standards and enforcement for a dangerous and problem-plagued sport. I believe this bill is the necessary foundation to support the progress that has been made at the federal level to protect the lives and health of these great athletes. Passage will also ensure the reestablishment of the integrity and honor of the great sport of boxing.
With that, I would again like to again graciously thank our distinguished panel of witnesses for joining us today. We look forward to your testimony. Thank you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. Stearns. Thank you, Mr. Stevens. I shall open up with questions.
You know, the feeling I have about this is--we have been talking about it, and I think it is--I think it can be summed up by--when we had the hearing, the Pennsylvania State Commissioner stated that it wasn't so much that he wanted a Federal Commission, but rather that we need one now. And I think that is sort of what I sense here. And let me just say from the outset: we have a bill. We have put it down. But we are willing to work with you in any way to help move this along.
And as you know, any piece of legislation, once it starts in a hearing like this, it gets marked up; there are amendments. And then, in the full committee, there is amendments. Then it goes to floor; there is amendments. And there is in the Senate the same process, and then it goes to conference, so we are a far cry from anything here. So we are willing to work with you, but I sense, Ms. Torres, that you have some reservation about the bill. But when you look at this industry, and you hear both Dr. Schwartz and you hear Mr. Stevens talking about all of their experiences, do you object to the premise--the basic premise of having a judgment by a commission that carries national enforcement.
I mean it seems like the testimony we have had has said that it would be nice to have a Federal Commission some--for some place to go and some national standards for health and a place where you could go for appeal. I mean, doesn't that appeal to you, consider that sport--boxing is the only major sport not to have a commission. I mean that, alone, it would seem to me, shows that we have been remiss in not setting up this Federal Commission, and no States--as Mr. Schwartz has pointed out, no States have adopted minimum standards, and they all just shop State to State. I mean, doesn't that all just make you realize that maybe the time has come for a boxing commission?
Ms. Torres. I think the time has clearly come for standardization of----
Mr. Stearns. Well, how are you going to get it without any Federal----
Ms. Torres. Well----
Mr. Stearns. [continuing] Commission?
Ms. Torres. I guess part of the concern is that while other sports have commissions----
Mr. Stearns. Yes?
Ms. Torres. [continuing] they are part--they are not a Federal agency. I can see that in this bill it looks as if the portions having to do with the investigative and prosecutorial function of this commission were perhaps a little more clearly thought out than what, exactly, will be standardized. The IBF and the WBA are not totally against standardization of practices or medical----
Mr. Stearns. Particularly with health.
Ms. Torres. Pardon?
Mr. Stearns. Particularly with health.
Ms. Torres. Particularly regarding health.
Mr. Stearns. Yes.
Ms. Torres. I think you are in a difficult situation here because States have statutes that actually regulate certain things having to do with boxing. How----
Mr. Stearns. So you would approve of a non-Federal commission, but a commission. You would like to see a boxing commission, but a--not be a Federal----
Ms. Torres. I would like it not to be a Federal agency with some of these superior powers.
Mr. Stearns. Yes. And why hasn't the boxing industry done that?
Ms. Torres. Perhaps because they haven't been able to get on the same page. I think that the work of the----
Mr. Stearns. But wouldn't that tell you----
Ms. Torres. ABC----
Mr. Stearns. Yes.
Ms. Torres. The ABC has come a long way. They have adopted rules for the conduct--for conducting bouts--which we all get to hear Harold Letterman read frequently--and they have adopted some standards for ratings criterion.
Mr. Stearns. But you realize that you can't get consistency. And we had a GAL report in 2003 that said that, you know, basically they couldn't get any consistencies across 8 States and 2 tribal boxing commissions. There was no assurance that the professional boxers were receiving the minimum protection established by Federal Law, just the minimum.
Ms. Torres. The minimum medical and safety protection?
Mr. Stearns. Yes.
Ms. Torres. That is----
Mr. Stearns. So----
Ms. Torres. That is a major problem.
Mr. Stearns. Yes, I mean----
Ms. Torres. I don't know how you are going to deal with all of the different legislation in the different States.
Mr. Stearns. I can tell you, having dealt with legislation before, all of these questions come up. But with good minds like you and others, we somehow work through them. Let me ask Dr. Schwartz. I see on the television and also in different places these extreme professional sports in wrestling and boxing, where they go in with nothing on. I mean it is just the shorts and their own fists, and they just go at it until somebody just calls uncle, and it is--sometimes, there is major bodily injury. Is anything regulated in that? Or is that just a free-for-all, and it is--I mean what is your feeling about that?
Mr. Schwartz. Well, such sport, like the Ultimate Fighting Championship----
Mr. Stearns. Yes.
Mr. Schwartz. They kind of have their act together; but regardless of who comes into my jurisdiction, we still require the same medical requirements, whether it is boxing, whether it is kickboxing or ultimate fighting. They are required to get the same medical tests. We have an ambulance onsite. We have paramedics. I could land a helicopter if I need to. I am actually very fortunate because my commission listens to what I feel are the most important requirements.
However, it is very, very different in other jurisdictions, as I stated in my testimony. Some of them don't even have ambulances. Some of them have doctors who aren't even practicing medicine. Some of them don't even have doctors. So as far as those other sports, we look at intent; we don't look at outcome. But boxing is actually less dangerous than football or auto racing; however, because the intent is to injure the opponent, we look at that. However, with these other sports, if they are regulated in a similar manner and are able to meet our medical requirements, then I don't see a problem with it.
Mr. Stearns. Just a closing: Mr. Stevens, would you support the bill if there was some changes in it? I mean can I put you on record as for it or against with--you know, some----
Mr. Stevens. I am for a national boxing commission. I--you asked Dr. Schwartz a question. If I might----
Mr. Stearns. Sure.
Mr. Stevens. Or maybe it was Ms. Torres. You know, I believe that--and I am not an attorney--but an athletic commission is, to my knowledge, a quasi-judicial body that is empowered by the legislature to, in this particular instance, regulate boxing. The other sports didn't have that fence to climb. They weren't created by a legislature to regulate the sport, so they could--the George Hallases in football and the early pioneers of baseball and basketball and hockey--they could create a league, a league office, without having to clear it through the government.
I think that is why boxing doesn't have or didn't have a national commission for all of these years. All of the States that have commissions were all empowered by the State legislature because--I would imagine the reason they did that is because to fight with another person is to commit an assault. At the least, touching of another in anger constitutes an assault. So in order to make that legal, they needed to--and there were probably other reasons. Maybe there was a gambling prohibition or whatever--but I believe it was really about an assault. So in order to make that assault acceptable, they needed to create a boxing commission, an athletic commission. And then, I don't think that these promoters or the managers of yesteryear, the ones we read about, the famed--the fabled ones like the Doc Kerns, who was Dempsey's manager, or Tex Rickert, who was the great promoter out of Madison Square Garden back in the 1920's and 1930's, or even the Teddy Brenners, the great matchmakers out of the Garden--they probably couldn't create a national commission; that is why we don't have one--my opinion. I think a lot of boxing people, if they thought that they could have created a commission in the 1940's or 1950's, they would have done it. Would I support a national boxing commission? I think Ms. Torres brings up a good point, that this particular bill is very general, and I think some of the other bills were too specific. I think, having been a promoter and matchmaker for most of my professional career, in terms of Mrs. Torres's testimony with the sanctioning organization, sanctioning organizations serve a very vital purpose.
Mr. Stearns. My time is up, so----
Mr. Stevens. Okay.
Mr. Stearns. [continuing] I am going to have to----
Mr. Stevens. But I just wanted to end that with saying that--as long as they follow the rules and regulation.
Mr. Stearns. So I will put you down as a maybe for the bill.
Mr. Stevens. Well, you could--well, like I said, I think that----
Mr. Stearns. You are supporting it?
Mr. Stevens. I would support your bill, yes.
Mr. Stearns. Okay. That is all I need to know. Okay?
Mr. Stevens. All right.
Mr. Stearns. Ranking Member Schakowsky.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. Stearns. The gentleman's time has expired, and we have finished our questioning. I want to thank the witnesses. I think we had the 1996 Professional Boxing Safety Act we passed. We, I think, brought out some interesting points about this bill we have. I think, Dr. Schwartz, you are to be commended for starting this American Association of Professional Ringside Physicians. I think that is very impressive, and if we could get you to get it international that would help, too. I know you have your hands full.
But I think that it is continuing in our mind that the boxing community is not doing that it--that we feel it should, and perhaps there might be a need for Federal regulation, much like the Professional Boxing Safety Act. So we are willing to work with you. We are willing to move this very general bill, as pointed out by you folks--it is not specific--to see if we can find some happy medium and pass it.
So I will conclude the hearing on that positive note. Thank you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_house_hearings&docid=99914.wais