mr. speaker and my colleagues , i hope you will all weigh carefully what your opportunity here is in terms of voting for this bill .  an opportunity to improve health research , an opportunity to improve education in title i , an opportunity to provide more money for special education , an opportunity to ensure that liheap is funded for those in need , an opportunity to develop community health centers where poor people can go to get help , where they can avoid having to run to the emergency room .  so many positive things .  as i said at the outset , this is a bill that makes you proud to be an american .  it illustrates the compassion of the american people .  we have heard from the other side how we are not doing enough .  let me point out that in 1996 shortly after the republican party became a majority in 1994 and took responsibility , in 1996 , the total of this bill was $ 65 billion .  here 10 years later , this bill is $ 142.5 billion , more than double the amount of money that has been committed to the compassionate programs of america , education , job training , medical research .  we could go on and on .  we heard the gentleman from california talk about qualified teachers .  i want to mention a special program in here .  it is new .  $ 100 million to help get better qualified teachers in every classroom .  over and over again we hear how important the teacher is to the education system .  not only teachers but principals , good principals , good schools .  we have recognized the importance of this by committing $ 100 million .  this bill has $ 2 billion for homeland security .  again , this is important to the american people .  homeland security in the form of cdc , checking around the world in 43 locations to ensure that avian flu does not reach our shores .  i could go on and on about the compassion of this bill in terms of helping people .  trio and gear-up , programs to help people get into college , to get that higher education that we all recognize is vital to their future and to the future of this nation .  and let me say to those of you who think that , well , the key to this is to defeat the bill .  if you defeat the bill , what is going to happen , in all likelihood , it will give these responsibilities that are embodied in this bill , the important programs for america will get rolled into some form of an omnibus bill and will be a continuing resolution .  if that were to happen , priorities that are embodied in the bill would be lost , the things that are so important to all the members of this body , but , moreover , far more important to the people of america , 280 million people .  i urge a strong , positive vote for the bill so we can continue to take pride in america and the compassion of the american people .  