WASHINGTON — As he rose from the witness chair, the commissioner of the NBA got a pat on the back from the head of the players’ union.

“David gave it to ’em,” Billy Hunter, executive director of the NBA Players’ Association, said with a smile.

Certainly, David Stern gave as good as he got when he and his fellow commissioners from the NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball were summoned back to Capitol Hill to discuss drugs in sports.

Some members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection used Wednesday’s hearing to express doubts that the leagues have done enough since a similar session before the same subcommittee in 2005. Several called for a federal law to legislate drug testing for all the major professional sports.

“Let’s get it right this time. ... Let’s go ahead and get something into law that is acceptable,” Texas Republican Joe Barton said. “It’s no fun having this hearing every two to three years.”

No, thank you, said Stern, who twice interrupted lawmakers to cite the progress made by all four leagues since the 2005 hearing through collective bargaining with their respective unions. He and the other witnesses also cautioned against a one-size-fits-all law that would apply to their very divergent sports.

“Federal legislation in this area is not necessary for the NBA,” Stern said. “Nor do I believe that a uniform, federally mandated approach to drug testing for all sports leagues would be appropriate.”

There were no players at Wednesday’s hearing. Instead, the commissioners sat side-by-side with their sport’s union chiefs: Bud Selig was inches away from Donald Fehr; Stern was next to Hunter. Then there was the NFL’s Roger Goodell and Gene Upshaw, and the NHL’s Gary Bettman and Paul Kelly.

Baseball had the most to prove, having implemented a stringent steroids policy only in the past few years. The NFL began addressing the problem some two decades ago, while the NBA and NHL say the nature of their sports is such that steroids use is virtually nonexistent.

As for HGH, the commissioners seemed inclined to wait and see if scientists can develop a way to detect it through a urine sample rather than a blood sample.

Selig said he has met with Fehr and a group of players to discuss implementing the recommendations of former Sen. George Mitchell’s report on drug use in baseball. Selig said he hopes the “ongoing, detailed” talks produce a more independent, transparent and flexible drug testing program.

Despite the reports of progress, some lawmakers remained skeptical.

“In spite of the fact that they want to pronounce that they have it under control, I still think that it’s not fully under control,” said the subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill. “And we have to do more.”

Several bills were introduced in the House and Senate after the 2005 hearing, but none came close to becoming law. Rush said the subcommittee will again pursue some sort of legislation,.

Fehr suggested one way Congress could help sports leagues: require a chemical marker be placed in commercially sold HGH so that the substance would be detectable in a urine test.

A second witness panel included the CEOs of the U.S. Olympic Committee, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, along with NCAA president Myles Brand.

Horse racing was of particular concern to Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., who blamed steroids in part for the frequent breakdowns of horses on the track.

“Is it time to call the federal cavalry and send it chasing into your stables with guns blazing to clean up the sport of horse racing?” Whitfield said.

Alexander Waldrop, head of the NTRA, said he expects virtually all major racing states by the end of this year to adopt a ban on the use of steroids for horses at least a month before they appear on the track.

“Is our testing protocol perfect? No,” Waldrop said. “Can it be improved? Absolutely. But the major industry stakeholders are united in their commitment to address drug and medication issues on a national basis.”

Rush said he was “exceptionally and extremely disappointed” that World Wrestling Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon was the only witness to decline the subcommittee’s invitation to testify. Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., added that someone who “flips his finger at this committee deserves to be called out.”

McMahon released a statement calling the comments “inaccurate and unfair.” He said he notified the subcommittee a month ago he could not attend because his lawyer was representing another client at a trial in Pennsylvania.