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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Texas steroid testing survives budget cuts


By JIM VERTUNO
AP Sports Writer

AUSTIN, Texas— Texas state officials have been told to trim funding for the program that tests high school athletes for steroids.

Texas agencies were ordered Tuesday to trim $1.2 billion as the state braces for a shortfall that cut reach as high as $18 billion. The $1 million steroids testing program had been seen as a likely target for elimination, but was instead reduced by $250,000.

A spokesman for Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who championed the program, says testing is a deterrent. Nearly 50,000 tests since February 2008 found only about 20 confirmed cases of steroid use.