Despite rounds of complaints by Republicans, the U.S. House of Representatives late Wednesday approved the Homeland Security spending bill championed by U.S. Rep. David Price of Chapel Hill.

The vote was 389-37, Barb Barrett reports.

Price, a Democrat, is chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security, responsible for writing and passing legislation that pays for border security, airport security, disaster response, immigration matters, the Secret Service and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The bill spends $42.6 billion — a $2.6 billion increase over last year, but slightly below President Barack Obama’s request.

"This bill will enable our government to better protect the American people against all major threats," Price said in a statement. "The key investments made here will assist first responders and enhance security on our borders, at our ports, and in aviation and transit.  And this legislation makes these investments in a fiscally responsible manner, coming in under the President’s budget request and saving $1.8 billion through elimination of 17 programs and reduced funding for another 40 programs."

Republicans said Democrats had wrongly limited amendments on the spending bill on the House floor. As part of their opposition, they repeated offered motions to adjourn early Wednesday, then requested roll calls when the motions were rejected, according to Congressional Quarterly.

U.S. Rep. David Price says that Coast Guard pool was a worthy project.

The Chapel Hill Democrat told Dome that he first learned about the need for a new training pool in Elizabeth City during a tour of the Coast Guard facility a year or two ago.

Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Wilson Democrat, requested the pool as an earmark in last year's budget. He said that it was helpful to have a North Carolina Congressman as a "cardinal" on the Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security.

But Price downplayed the local connection.

"It's one of those projects that I guess legally is an earmark," he said. "I think it's fair to say that we would have probably written that into the bill even if nobody had requested it."

Price said he has visited a number of facilities that fall under Homeland Security since becoming chairman. The pool was just one of many needs, such as dorms, that he saw at the Elizabeth City facility.

"It was more or less a routine visit as chairman of the subcommittee to see an important Coast Guard facility," he said. "It just happened to be one in my own state."

How bipartisan has U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole been?

With the candidates for Senate touting their ability to bridge the partisan divide, Dome decided to take a closer look.

One measure is the number of Democrats who signed onto legislation Dole sponsored.

In the 2007-08 session, the Salisbury Republican was the primary sponsor of 75 bills. Of them, 42 had no cosponsor, 18 had only Republican cosponsors and 15 had Democratic cosponsors.

Overall, her 87 cosponsors included 64 Republicans and 23 Democrats, or about a three-to-one ratio.

The most frequent Democratic cosponsors were Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Ted Kennedy. Lieberman, an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, signed on to bills praising the Coast Guard for a cocaine seizure, creating a student loan program for worker training and committing 4 percent of the gross domestic product to military spending.

Kennedy signed onto the Coast Guard resolution, an amendment that would require the Navy to publicize Camp Lejeune's drinking water contamination, and a resolution honoring the U.S. Marshals' anniversary.

Dole also had Democratic cosponsors on bills recognizing the Lumbee tribe, giving a tax credit for hunger relief, amending the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Trade Act of 1974, starting a pilot program for pregnant college students, honoring Veterans Day, creating a Southeast Crescent Authority and researching flow batteries.

Eric H. Smith could have been a member of the U.S. Coast Guard right now instead of a Republican candidate for state Superintendent for Public Instruction.

Smith said he tried to fulfill one of of his lifelong goals by signing up fhe Coast Guard after he graduated from high school, Keung Hui reports.

But a week into his service, he said he was discharged because a detailed medical exam uncovered a shoulder injury he had suffered when he was hit by a car in high school.

Smith said he had been so heartbroken about not being allowed to stay that he had lobbied people, including U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, for help. If he had gotten back in, he said he would have made it his career.

Smith's tenure in the Coast Guard is so short that he doesn't list it on his biography on his campaign Web site.