When the Texas Legislature authorized the construction of a hospital for cancer research and treatment somewhere in the state in 1941, the MD Anderson Foundation offered to match the appropriation if the hospital would be built in Houston. Today the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas is the largest of its kind in the world with significant economic benefits for the greater Houston-area of $13.5 billion in total expenditures, $6.7 billion in gross product, $4.5 billion in earnings and more than 82,400 permanent jobs. Accounting for almost 2 percent of the city's economy, the Center has also made a commitment to identify and encourage minority, women and historically underrepresented small business to participate in the competitive bid process with the goal of increasing the number of contracts awarded to them.