mr. speaker , i thank the ranking member , mr. obey , and i thank him and applaud him for his steadfast voice on behalf of those who need a voice on the hill , who always speaks up on behalf of those without a voice .  and i want to thank the chairman for his steadfast work trying to make the best of a bad situation .  you know , mr. chairman , i think that when you got on to that republican bus and you were trying to find a seat up front for the people 's bill , a seat up front for education , a seat up front for health care , a seat up front for human services , all the front row seats were already taken .  they were taken by the tax cut bill , they were taken by the corporate loophole bill for energy companies , and they were taken by the big pharmaceutical giveaways .  i tell the chairman , in many respects , just like rosa parks , whose life we celebrated just recently , you were told to take your people 's bill to the back of the bus .  right now , mr. speaker , that is just where all of our nation 's priorities are , at the back of the bus .  these are priorities that ought to be at the front .  these are priorities , like education , that are going to lead our country to the future .  we are talking about a war now in the middle east .  we are going to have another war on our hands .  it is an economic war .  we used to use our military for political and military hegemony .  now , for us to have political hegemony , we need intellectual power .  our military analogy is our young people need to have textbooks , not tanks .  they need to have pencils .  they need to have schools that are not falling down on them .  they need to be able to go on to higher education .  but , unfortunately , mr. speaker , this bill represents the single biggest cut in higher education that we have ever seen in the history of this country .  imagine that at a time when our nation 's economy demands that our soldiers , our men and women who were trying to make a living for themselves , are being taken hostage because they do not have all the protective gear that they need .  they do not have an education to wrap themselves around so that they can go out into that economic workforce and be protected and know that they can make a living for themselves in this new-world economy .  so i thank the chairman for doing the best job that he could ; but i am sure , as he knows , the people 's bill , unfortunately , in this budget took a back seat to many other bills that , unfortunately , i do not believe it should have taken a back seat to .  