U.S. lawmakers on Thursday said a national anti-steroid policy might be needed to deter the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs among Major League Baseball players and the student athletes who idolize them.

As a high-profile showdown between Congress and baseball got underway, lawmakers said the sport bore responsibility for spiraling rates of illegal steroid use among high school athletes and needed to do more to clean up its act.

“You can’t do this just by sending people into the classrooms and talking about it.

You’ve got to start from the top down,” said Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, chairman of the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee.

Other lawmakers suggested Congress could revoke the sport’s antitrust exemption that has shielded it from competition.

“They are not bigger than the game and they are certainly not bigger than the law of the land,” said Kentucky Republican Sen. Jim Bunning, a former pitcher in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Baseball has come under widespread scrutiny following allegations arising from the landmark BALCO lab case in California that some top players enhanced their performance with muscle-building steroids.

Some of the sport’s biggest stars, along with several top baseball officials, were scheduled to testify.

The witnesses include ex-slugger Jose Canseco, who says there has been widespread use of steroids in the game despite claims to the contrary by Major League Baseball.

“Why did I take steroids? The answer is simple. Because myself and others had no choice if we wanted to continue playing. Because MLB did nothing to take it out of the sport,” Canseco said in prepared testimony.

Canseco, a former Oakland Athletics star, said in his recent controversial book he took steroids with some of the biggest names in the game, including former home-run king Mark McGwire, now retired, and Rafael Palmeiro, now with the Baltimore Orioles. Both deny Canseco’s charges and were scheduled to testify.

POLICY BEARS FRUIT

The leading two U.S. major professional sports, baseball and NFL, have lagged behind the rest of the world in tackling the issue of illegal drug use and imposing penalties.

The World Anti-Doping Agency, created in 1999 to set international standards for combating drugs in sports and to pursue illegal users, has attacked baseball for not cracking down harder on cheats.

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said the sport’s anti-steroid efforts are bearing fruit. Fewer than 2 percent of tests were positive last year, down from 5 to 7 percent in 2003, the first year of testing, he said in prepared testimony.

A new policy announced in January says players who fail drug tests would be identified and suspended for 10 days.

Yet the committee said on Wednesday that a subpoenaed copy of the policy, marked “still in draft form,” showed violators could instead be fined and not identified.

Rob Manfred, an MLB executive vice president, issued a statement insisting baseball would suspend and identify violators.

Lawmakers said a national anti-drug policy may be necessary because baseball’s attempts at self-regulation have been a bust.

“For 30 years Major League Baseball has told us to trust them, but the league hasn’t honored that trust,” said California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman.

Other players scheduled to testify include slugger Sammy Sosa, who has denied using steroids, along with Curt Schilling and Frank Thomas, both outspoken opponents of steroids.