AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas' high school steroids testing program that has caught only a handful of cheaters has survived budget cuts across most state agencies.

But the program is shrinking.

Agencies were ordered Tuesday to trim $1.2 billion as state officials brace for a shortfall that cut reach as high as $18 billion. The $1 million steroids testing program had been seen as a likely target. Instead, it was reduced by $250,000 but survived.

A spokesman for Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who championed the program, says testing is a deterrent that helps keep high school athletes from using performance enhancing drugs.

Nearly 50,000 tests since February 2008 found only about 20 confirmed cases of steroid use.

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