The Biden administration is holding up the annual U.S. payment to the World Anti-Doping Agency to press the organization to make changes in the wake of revelations that it chose not to discipline elite Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned drug, according to two people briefed on the matter.
The White House has told the agency that it needed to have more accountability and transparency and that it must submit to a wide-ranging outside audit of its operations, which have come under intense scrutiny amid revelations that it took no action against China in a number of cases of suspected doping.
Led by Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the administration is also pushing for limits on the ability of the agency, known as WADA, to use American taxpayer dollars to sue U.S. institutions, like American antidoping authorities who were the target of a defamation lawsuit by WADA.
WADA, which has long tried to avoid outside oversight, is the global body responsible for policing the use of banned, performance-enhancing drugs at events like the Olympics.
WADA has denied mishandling the positive tests and has cast the criticism from the United States as politically motivated. A spokesman for the organization said on Monday that “no provision exists within WADA’s governance model whereby a government may unilaterally withhold its contribution based on its own set of conditions.”
Antidoping officials fear that if the current White House fails to send the money before President-elect Donald J. Trump assumes office in January, it could have deeper ramifications for WADA and the money may never be sent. Mr. Trump’s first administration took an even harder line against WADA and China than the Biden administration has.
