HARRISBURG — A proposal to create Pennsylvania's first new cabinet-level agency in 15 years to oversee substance abuse programs neared approval Friday in what supporters said was a step toward expanding treatment options.

The Senate voted 43-7 to create a state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, while a House vote appeared likely on Saturday. Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, the bill's sponsor, said it would help the state pursue federal grants and improve communication among governmental agencies.

The department would absorb the Health Department's existing Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Programs. The governor would appoint a secretary to lead the new agency a year from now.

"Leadership's the big word for me, you need leadership in this issue," said DiGirolamo, R-Bucks, who has worked on the issue for the past five years. "The secretary of health is a great guy, but he's pulled in a hundred different directions."

The state last created a new cabinet-level agency in 1995, when the Department of Environmental Resources was split into the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Community and Natural Resources.

The bill creating the substance-abuse treatment agency was sent back to the House because of an unrelated amendment. But the chamber overwhelmingly approved an earlier version in May, and has passed similar bills in the past two legislative sessions, DiGirolamo said.

A final vote was expected late Friday or on Saturday.

Sen. John Wozniak, D-Cambria, who voted against it in the Senate, said expanding the state's bureaucracy was bound to cost more money. By one estimate, it will add about $1.4 million in annual operating costs. But DiGirolamo said he believed it would end up being less than $1 million. "I think it's going to be revolutionary," he said.

Sen. Jane Earll, R-Erie, a "no" vote, said the agency will be unable to make meaningful changes in how treatment is delivered because it won't control the money that pays for its programs. "Unless you control the money, you don't have any power to make anything happen," she said.

The Drug and Alcohol Service Providers Organization says fewer than 10 percent of the approximately 860,000 Pennsylvanians in need of addiction treatment are getting it.

The state spends more than $90 million on addiction treatment, not including money spent in prisons or through the state-federal Medicaid health care program for the poor, the organization said.

Deb Beck, the organization's president, said a cabinet-level official will be freer to push for prevention programs in schools and counseling in prisons, which could end up saving taxpayers money down the road.