if the gentleman will yield , yes , for those of us in nonincome tax states that means that you are voting to take that deduction away from them . 
another one that you would be voting to take away is the above-the-line deduction for out-of-pocket teacher-classroom expenses . 
extending that deduction for our nation 's teachers is included in this bill . 
i have so many of my friends that i went through college with who are teachers , and many of them have been teaching for about 30 years now . 
this is something that is important to them , because they spend a lot of their out-of-pocket money buying little things , buying little things that are going to enrich the classroom day . 
the above-the-line deduction for higher education expenses , as i was saying earlier , the research and development tax credit , now that is something that is so important to our companies in this country . 
when you talk about the bioshield projects , biotech developments in agricultural products , in pharmaceuticals , when you talk about technology and the needs that we have there for our nation 's first responders , for our military , all of that comes in research and development . 
when you talk about looking at what businesses are investing in as they are working , our small business manufacturers , whose output is up for the first time in a couple of decades , they are investing in this research and development to build a better mousetrap . 
mr. speaker , i yield to the gentleman from texas for comment on this . 
