Barbara Barrett, Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, took to the House of Representatives floor Tuesday in what could be his highest-profile work yet in Congress.

Price, the new chairman of the Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee -- one of the most powerful seats in Congress -- is the prime mover behind a $36.3 billion Homeland Security spending bill that hits such hot-button issues as hurricane response and a new border defense system.

In dark suit and red tie, he managed an hours-long, nationally televised floor debate into the night, his professorial baritone defending a spending package that reflects his thinking about how best to protect the nation.

"I'm excited to be undertaking this," Price said in an interview before the debate. "It's something I've taken on with the change in leadership, and it's obviously a major national bill."

The subcommittee funds nearly two dozen agencies and covers matters as far-reaching as emergency management, immigration enforcement, airport security and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Price comes to the homeland security debate steeped with a North Carolina perspective. He saw firsthand what happened when Hurricane Floyd swamped eastern North Carolina nearly a decade ago, has watched the tide of immigration transform the Tar Heel state and has seen thousands of North Carolina-based troops deployed to fight in the war on terror.

"My job is to look out for national priorities," Price said. "But my experience in North Carolina has shaped the bill, it's true."

During debate Tuesday, Price and other Democrats fended off attacks from Republicans and worked to parry a threatened presidential veto.

The Bush administration on Tuesday labeled the bill too costly and said it would reduce federal control over a host of issues. A final House vote on the bill is expected today. If it passes, it would go to the Senate for consideration.

The bill includes millions more than President Bush requested for first responders, firefighters, port cargo screening, rail security and the search for criminal aliens. And it has millions less than Bush wanted for Coast Guard ships, wireless emergency communications and domestic nuclear detection.

It also allows for hiring more airport screeners, expands flood mapping and doubles the amount of cargo screened on passenger planes.

The bill is expected to be among the least contentious of the funding bills moving through the House in coming weeks, but it includes several controversial policy provisions on the hiring of airport screeners, on border security and on chemical plant security.

Price said in November that he would increase the focus on first responders and work to include natural disasters more prominently under the umbrella of homeland security. And after months of hearings with dozens of experts and investigators, the bill includes $1.4 billion beyond Bush's request in state and local grants, an amount the White House called "unwarranted and unjustified."

Price disagreed.

"There's no question that the front lines of protecting our nation are in the communities," he said.

The grants would go to a variety of uses including equipment, training and radios. Some grants would be targeted at urban areas or those cities at high risk of terrorism attacks. Others could be used nationwide by local firefighters, emergency management agents, law enforcement officers and other first responders.

"We need all that we can get," said Reginald Hessler, president of the N.C. State Firemen's Association and chief of the Boone city fire department. He spent $142,000 two years ago on breathing equipment for firefighters through one such grant.

But homeland security experts called the local grants as wasteful.

"The increase in first responder funding is actually somewhat questionable," said Michael O'Hanlon, a homeland security expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "It's easy to throw umpteen million dollars at first responders."

James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation, who testified before Price's subcommittee last winter, said this week that the grants are money that would be better spent on intelligence gathering and preventing terrorist attacks.

"They're ignoring the fact we have a strategy and shifting money to focus on individual stakeholders," Carafano said.

Price responded to arguments into the evening about individual amendments that would add millions here or cut millions there, on issues ranging from fewer dollars to department headquarters to more money for big cities.

"This bill is not lavish," Price argued in exasperation at one point. "Let's get past the rhetoric about bureaucracy. Let's look at what the bill actually does."

In another exchange, Price defended the requirement that the Department of Homeland Security submit detailed reports on how it will unroll a new border defense system made up of fencing, vehicle barriers, remote sensors and cameras. The bill withholds funding until the reports are submitted.

Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee, said the "onerous restrictions" would have the effect of delaying border security.

But overall, Price's colleagues praised the bill.

"I believe this bill has the potential to do a lot of good," Rogers of Kentucky said.