i thank the leader for that observation and hopefully we can , in fact , move on that .  we not only passed it last week but we passed it a number of times before that .  mr. leader , i would simply observe on our side and , frankly , on your side that the senate number is a number that i think our committee certainly and this house could well approve .  i know the president does not like that number , but very frankly , as the gentleman knows , our own committee almost unanimously on voice vote passed out an authorization figure at , i think , 375 , so $ 80 billion more than the senate-passed bill .  i would certainly hope that the congress could exercise its will .  the senate was at 218 .  we were at 284 .  now it is a little bit in between that .  i would hope that we could move this conference as quickly as possible .  it has been held up a long time and has a significant consequence for jobs , as the leader knows , significant consequence for contractors , states , municipalities , localities , and we have been a long time waiting for this passage that is now some 2 years late .  but i appreciate the leader 's observation that we will appoint conferees next week , and hopefully perhaps the leader can help accelerate that conference so we can agree .  and then the president , of course , will have to do what he thinks is best and make a determination , and then we might have a shocking event and he may veto a bill and send it back to us , and i am relatively confident we would work our will at that point in time .  i do not know whether the leader wants to make an observation .  