We have a longstanding commitment to ensuring that legislation that can be bipartisan moves through this committee and the full committee. The need for physicians in underserved areas is not a partisan Issue. The J1 visa waiver is also known as a Conrad program to reflect the fact that Senator CONRAD established it. Senator CONRAD and I have worked together on the program and decided that more data was needed on how successfully the program is being implemented. So we asked the General Accounting Office to investigate the implementation of the J1 visa program. GAO issued a report in November of this year. and among other things. GAO found that the use of the J1 visa waiver is a major means of providing physicians to practice in underserved areas of the United States. More than 1.000 waivers were requested in each of the fiscal years 2003 through 2005 by States and three Federal agencies. the Appalachian Regional Commission. the Delta Regional Authority. and the Department of HHS. GAO also found that the present system of providing up to 30 waivers per State is not working.