This is the committee report in support of the bill which I am offering as my substitute which ought to be on the floor because it passed the Committee on the Judiciary by a vote of 23 to 4. This is what the committee report says. It says. it is in the Nations interest that the quota for H1B aliens be temporarily raised. First. unless Congress acts. employers will not be able to employ new H1B nonimmigrants until the beginning of the next fiscal year. The committee report then goes on to say. the committee recognizes that the evidence for such a shortage is inconclusive. There are people out there who are saying there is no shortage of hightech workers. There are people who are saying there is a major shortage of hightech workers. and we. in our committee report. acknowledge that we could not decide that one way or another. ED 1645 Then the committee report says. however. the increase in the H1B quota should be of relatively brief duration. there will be a bumper crop of American college graduates skilled in computer science beginning in the summer of 2001. Now. we acknowledge that if there is a shortage. it is a temporary shortage of high skilled workers. and we ought to respond to that shortage by increasing the number on a temporary basis. And that is exactly what the committees bill does. the one that I am offering instead of my chairman defending the committees bill.