ms. mccollum: mr. speaker, i would like to say that i have seven bridges in my congressional district with hundreds of thousands of car trips a day in worse condition than the lift bridge in stillwater. this megabridge will also be directly in the minnesota state highway 36. tens of thousands of my constituents along highway 36 will be suffering crippling traffic congestion and higher property taxes to pay to relieve that congestion. this is a bad piece of legislation. i urge my colleagues to oppose it. i would ask how much time i have remaining and of mr. petri, how many speakers he has left? the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady has four minutes remaining. mr. petri: mr. speaker, at this time i would like to ask representative bachmann from minnesota, a strong proponent of the legislation before us, i would like to yield four minutes. mrs. bachmann: mr. speaker, as representative bachmann approaches the -- ms. mccollum: mr. speaker, as representative bachmann approaches the well, the gentleman from

ms. mccollum and i that would have looked at direct spending. those amendments unfortunately were ruled out of order. pursuing bipartisanship and providing members of political cover is unworthy of the congress in my view and certainly this majority. our budget problems are serious. they deserve serious solutions. the ryan budget is a serious solution. the 2006 legislative line-item veto bill which included provisions to cover the very items that this bill does not was a serious solution. this legislation sadly is not serious and ought to be rejected. we need to be serious about the deficit we face. with that i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. ryan: mr. chairman, i'll yield myself 10 seconds to say i agree with what the gentleman said. he is a good friend. we don't have all spending in this bill but that doesn't mean don't go after some of the spending that's passed by congress. this is the kind of spending congress passes annually every year. i think it's a good step in the right