If this bill becomes law. as many as 3000 additional masters and doctoral level engineers and scientists could be produced each year. with up to 1000 of these being women and minorities. all at no additional cost to businesses. I fully expect that the "Private Sector Research and Development Investment Act of 1999" will accelerate business investment in universities. growing the number of trained scientists and engineers even faster. At a time when there has been much debate over providing additional employment visas to foreign engineers. this bill provides one mechanism for educating qualified Americans to fill these high tech jobs. As the cost of doing research continues to escalate. and companies find it more difficult to go it alone. our bill proposes that the research investments companies make in research consortia with other businesses. universities. and federal laboratories be fully available for the Tax Credit. I have seen firsthand. at places like Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. the results of consortia partnerships between industry and our national labs. and I believe that it is in our nations best interest to promote these research arrangements.