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.