mr. oberstar and others, mr. shuster came before me, a whole host of great leaders in the committee, mr. mineta, my first chair, and i tried to learn from all of them and not make mistakes and do the best thing for the committee and for -- not for myself -- my self interests but in the interests of the american people. because that's what we're sent here for, is to help the american people. what a crisis after 9/11, we came together. we have a crisis now. we have millions of americans who don't have jobs, who don't have work. i supported the bill, i -- mr. oberstar waited 32 years to become chairman. i was elected after 18 years by my colleagues. he had his bill pretty much together. i didn't have a bill. so i first went to mr. rahall's district, the ranking member held the first hearing on this legislation in west virginia where i'd never been and i wouldn't mind going back and everybody there was nice to me and committed then, went across the country, did a record number of hearings, as i said, bipartisan, bica