WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress wants to hear more about the Mitchell Report on drug use in baseball.

About two hours after former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell released his findings, two congressmen at the forefront of Capitol Hill's involvement in the steroids issue asked Mitchell, baseball commissioner Bud Selig and union head Donald Fehr to testify at a House committee hearing next week.

California Democrat Henry Waxman and Virginia Republican Tom Davis -- the leaders of the panel that held the March 17, 2005, hearing at which Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa testified -- want to know "whether the Mitchell report's recommendations will be adopted and whether additional measures are needed," they said.

The legislators called for a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on Tuesday.

"This is a sad day for Major League Baseball, but a good day for integrity in sports. It's an important step towards the goal of eliminating the use of performance enhancing substances," Waxman and Davis said in a joint statement.

"The Mitchell report is sobering. ... It shows that everyone involved in Major League Baseball bears some responsibility for this scandal," they continued.

Waxman and Davis were among several members of the House and Senate who sponsored legislation in 2005, proposing to mandate stronger steroid testing and penalties for baseball and other U.S. professional sports leagues.

Another representative who sponsored a bill and held hearings on the topic in 2005, Florida Republican Cliff Stearns, called on Selig to resign.

"Certainly, a lack of leadership and oversight in MLB enabled these abuses to continue," Stearns said Thursday. "After 15 years of slow action, a new commissioner is needed to guide the league out of this era of drug abuse."

Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada were among the dozens of current and past All-Star players named in Mitchell's 409-page report after a 20-month investigation into the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

Palmeiro is mentioned in the report. He failed a drug test and was suspended by baseball a few months after his 2005 appearance before Congress, when he jutted a finger at lawmakers while testifying under oath, "I have never used steroids, period."

Through his attorney, Rusty Hardin, Clemens denied he used performance-enhancing drugs and expressed outrage that his name was included in the report.

"I have great respect for Senator Mitchell. I think an overall look at this problem in baseball was an excellent idea," Hardin said in a statement. "But I respectfully suggest it is very unfair to include Roger's name in this report. He is left with no meaningful way to combat what he strongly contends are totally false allegations. He has not been charged with anything, he will not be charged with anything and yet he is being tried in the court of public opinion with no recourse. That is totally wrong.

"There has never been one shred of tangible evidence that he ever used these substances and yet he is being slandered today,'' said Hardin, who called McNamee a "troubled man."

The minority of players who used such substances were wrong. They violated federal law and baseball policy, and they distorted the fairness of competition by trying to gain an unfair advantage over the majority of players who followed the law and the rules.

NEW YORK -- Andy Pettitte used human growth hormone to recover from an elbow injury in 2002, the New York Yankees pitcher admitted two days after he was cited in the Mitchell report.

Pettitte said he tried HGH on two occasions, stressing he did it to heal faster and not enhance his performance. He emphasized he never used steroids.

"If what I did was an error in judgment on my part, I apologize," Pettitte said Saturday in a statement released by his agent. "I accept responsibility for those two days."

On Thursday, Pettitte was among 85 players named by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell's investigation into steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. Pettitte had not commented publicly on the allegations.

Pettitte asked the trainer he shared with Roger Clemens, Brian McNamee, to help him with HGH while on the disabled list early in the season, the report said. McNamee recalled injecting Pettitte two to four times, Mitchell said.

HGH wasn't banned by baseball until January 2005.

"In 2002 I was injured. I had heard that human growth hormone could promote faster healing for my elbow," Pettitte said in the statement released to The Associated Press by agent Randy Hendricks.

"I felt an obligation to get back to my team as soon as possible. For this reason, and only this reason, for two days I tried human growth hormone. Though it was not against baseball rules, I was not comfortable with what I was doing, so I stopped.

"This is it -- two days out of my life; two days out of my entire career, when I was injured and on the disabled list," he said. "I wasn't looking for an edge. I was looking to heal."

Pettitte was not linked to steroids in the report, and said he never had never used them.

"I have the utmost respect for baseball and have always tried to live my life in a way that would be honorable," he said. "If I have let down people that care about me, I am sorry, but I hope that you will listen to me carefully and understand that two days of perhaps bad judgment should not ruin a lifetime of hard work and dedication.

"I have tried to do things the right way my entire life, and, again, ask that you put those two days in the proper context. People that know me will know that what I say is true," he said.

The Yankees backed Pettitte.

"Late this afternoon, Andy Pettitte advised us that he would be making a public statement. We support his coming forward," the team said in a statement.


The 35-year-old lefty is 201-113 lifetime. He started his major league career in 1995 and won four World Series championships with the Yankees. He pitched for his hometown Houston Astros from 2004-06 and helped them reach their first World Series.

Pettitte returned to the Yankees last season and went 15-9. This month, he put off retirement and agreed to a $16 million, one-year contract to play for the Yankees next season.

Mitchell devoted 1 1/2 pages to McNamee's testimony about Pettitte. Clemens was mentioned on nearly nine pages, with McNamee saying he injected the star pitcher.

Clemens was accused of using steroids and HGH and, through his lawyer, vehemently denied the accusations.

When Clemens joined the Yankees in 1999, he and Pettitte became fast friends and training partners. McNamee was part of their regimen -- Clemens had worked with him in Toronto before being traded to New York.

According to the Mitchell report, Pettitte asked McNamee about using HGH after the 2001 season, and the trainer said he discouraged the pitcher from trying it.