Lawmakers of Texas decided that they will slash their drug testing program by more than half of the original budget. State of Texas is considered having the largest and most expensive steroid testing program for high school athletes in the country. In negotiating the 2010-2011 budget, House and Senate members worked out a deal to cut the steroid testing budget as it was found to be inefficient, costly and unjustified considering the recent economic recession and other more immediate concerns that need to be prioritized. The current program has a budget that reaches 6 million dollars, and is meant to test up to 50,000 high school students up till the end of this school year, 2008-2009. So far, the only states that have implemented a state-wide steroid testing program for high school athletes include New Jersey, Illinois, and Texas; among the three, Texas has by far the most extensive and expensive program.

The testing did not yield any significant results as only 11 of the first 29,000 students who were tested were confirmed to have used steroids. This prompted lawmakers and critics to conclude that the program was a waste of time and money. Among the lawmakers who suggested that the budget for the steroid testing program can be scaled down as Republican Governor Rick Perry, who was also one of the proponents of the drug testing when it was initially implemented.

The tentative proposal for the program’s new budget is 2 million dollars over the next two years. Even with slashing two-thirds of the original budget, the new budget remains to be the largest steroid testing program of its kind in the nation. One of the senate budget negotiators, Senator Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, told the Associated Press that while the low number of positive results persuaded the lawmakers to significantly cut down the budget for this program, they will not cease testing after only two years into implementing the said program. Shapiro believed that this was a national issue and to say that they tried the program for only two years and trashed it thereafter would not have sent a good message to the public. Although the final budget vote has yet to be finalized, Shapiro says that she considers the steroid testing funding of 2 million dollars to be firm.

Originally, the House had cut all funding for the program while the Senate kept the budget at 6 million dollars. Representative Dan Flynn, R-Van, one of the proponents of the testing program during the 2007 session said that the 2 million dollars is enough to pay for a testing program, extensive enough to serve as a deterrent against the use of steroids. Flynn, however, is not part of the budget negotiations. Flynn added that he thinks that with the program, they have raised awareness on the public health and safety issue of steroid use among high school kids.

The testing program is done by the same organization that tests athletes for the NCAA—the National Center for Drug Free Sport. While all high school athletes are subjected for testing, most of the “random” tests have been heavily targeted towards football players. Flynn commented that the smaller testing program will have to concentrate on football, baseball, weightlifting, track, and sports that are known to have a direct benefit from steroid use.

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