Here's my .bashrc that has the path variable set - hope it helps....
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/games:/usr/local/src/j2re1.4.1/:/usr/local
/src/j2re1.4.1/bin:/usr/local/src/j2re1.4.1/lib:/usr/local/Acrobat4/bin
BASH_ENV=$HOME/.bashrc
USERNAME=""
export USERNAME BASH_ENV PATH
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