Price: Coast Guard pool was needed

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."