Washington ? Baseball commissioner Bud Selig got the tougher drug policy that he wanted and Congress demanded. Now, a player who fails a steroid test will miss nearly a third of the season instead of a little more than a week.

Spurred by the threat of legislation, baseball players and owners agreed Tuesday to tougher penalties for steroid use next season, including 50 games for a first offense, 100 games for a second, and a lifetime ban for a third, plus testing for amphetamines.

The sport’s current penalties are a 10-day suspension for a first offense, 30 days for a second offense and 60 days for a third. The earliest a player could be banned for life is a fifth offense.

The new deal, which must be ratified by both sides, is almost exactly what Selig proposed in April – one month after he and union head Donald Fehr were scolded at a House hearing.

“We’ve taken, in my opinion, a giant step forward. And it’s a very, very proud day for baseball,” Selig said. “I don’t regard this as an interim step. I regard this as the completion of a long process.”

Several bills that would increase steroid penalties across major U.S. pro sports are pending in Congress, and lawmakers would like to see other leagues follow baseball’s lead. But Tuesday’s news “stops the rush to move legislation through at this time,” said Rep. Tom Davis, whose House Government Reform Committee held the March 17 hearing on steroids.

The witnesses that day included Rafael Palmeiro – who testified he never had used steroids, then was banned for 10 days after failing a test in May – and the parents of a high school athlete who committed suicide after using steroids.

“Listening to the Donald Hooton story about how his son died because of steroids really, really got to me. And I remember that very lonely night, getting on a plane … the more I thought of that story, I cried,” Selig said. “And I made up my mind that night that this sport wasn’t going to rest until it had taken what I felt and what all of us felt was the appropriate action.”

In April, he made a 50-100-lifetime proposal and suggested testing for amphetamines for the first time. In September, Fehr countered with 20 games, 75 games and, for a third offense, a penalty set by the commissioner.

The players’ association appeared to pretty much capitulate to Selig’s demands, except for gaining the right to have an arbitrator review reinstatement decisions. A player can seek to return to the game two years after being banned for life.

“This agreement reaffirms that major league players are committed to the elimination of performance-enhancing substances,” Fehr said in a statement.

National League MVP Albert Pujols supported the tougher punishments.

“If you get caught the third time, you definitely need to be thrown out of baseball,” the St. Louis Cardinals first baseman said. “If you get caught the third time, it means you’re not learning the lesson.”

While boosting strength, steroids can lead to dramatic mood swings, heart disease and cancer; using most steroids without a doctor’s prescription for medical purposes has been illegal since 1991.