Representing Pennsylvania's 12th District, U.S. Rep. John P. "Jack" Murtha continually works to attract and keep jobs in the area and develop essential sewer, water and transportation infrastructure.

He fights for policies that help people, including a patient's bill of rights, prescription-drug benefits, a better minimum wage, and protecting Medicare, Social Security and veterans benefits. As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, he is a national leader on defense, health-care and social issues who uses his position to benefit Pennsylvania, the region and the people. For example:

Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) of Pennsylvania was about to be killed by federal regulations, but Jack convinced the White House to be more flexible and saved the children's health care.

EPA said the six-county Pittsburgh Air Basin would get no permits for industrial growth, but Jack inserted language allowing time to finish a balanced, community-based plan.

Medicare refused to pay for preventive health care, including mammograms and flu shots, but Jack had language in an appropriation that convinced the agency to provide coverage.

Born June 17, 1932, John "Jack" Murtha grew up in Westmoreland County in a family with deep roots in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Instilled with a strong work ethic early in life, he earned money by getting up early to deliver newspapers and then worked in a gas station before graduating from Ramsey High School in Mount Pleasant. Jack attended Washington and Jefferson College and was an end on the football team, but after a year there joined the Marine Corps out of a sense of obligation to his country during the Korean War. He ran a small business in Johnstown while starting a family and attending the University of Pittsburgh on the GI Bill. He graduated from Pitt with a degree in economics and did graduate work in economics and political science at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the school his mother and daughter attended. Jack volunteered in Vietnam in 1966-67. In 1974, he became the first combat Vietnam veteran elected to Congress. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserves in 1990. Jack and his wife Joyce reside in Johnstown, where they raised their 3 children; they have 3 grandchildren.

Jack Murtha has one of the strongest records in all of Congress on job development. In recent years, he has been a key to the following economic-development initiatives:

Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, which resulted in over 10,000 software jobs regionally, as well as CMU's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), Robitc Center and the new Center for Computer and Communications Security.

Sony Technology Center-Pittsburgh, and the affiliated American Video Glass plant near Mount Pleasant, 3,200 direct jobs and an estimated 6,000 jobs at contractors and vendors in the region.

An estimated 4,500 defense-related jobs created in and around the 12th District. These jobs were a key factor in a Milken Institute study that identified the Johnstown area as one of the nation's fastest growing high-tech areas. They include:

Electro Optics Center, Armstrong County, has already attracted three companies in the high-growth electro-optics industry for a total creation of 175 jobs, with potential for many more jobs.

New companies attracted include Advanced Acoustic Concepts, Fayette County, 100 jobs; SenSyTech, Fayette County, 100 jobs; United Defense Systems, Fayette County, 100 jobs; Pittsburgh Electric Engines, Inc., Westmoreland County, 40 jobs with potential for 150 jobs; Aeptec Microsystems, Inc., and Lockheed Martin, Blairsville, 100 jobs; Armstrong Laser Technology, Kittanning, 50 jobs; Martin-Baker America, Johnstown, 100 jobs.

Concurrent Technologies Corporation, 700 jobs in Johnstown and 40 jobs in Pittsburgh.

Windber Research Institute, Somerset County, has created 40 jobs and attracted high-growth bio-technology businesses creating 100 more jobs.

National Drug Intelligence Center, federal prison and other federal facilities in Cambria County, 840 jobs.

The Westmoreland Rail Freight Terminal, a rail-truck intermodal facility, 30 direct jobs plus potential for 2,000 jobs at adjacent rail and trucking companies. Companies and industrial sites also benefit along the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, a short line that Jack funded linking Fayette and Westmoreland counties.

Northpointe, a premier industrial park developed with $4.4 million for water and infrastructure in Armstrong County, plus millions for other industrial park and brownfields developments.

In addition, Murtha founded the House Steel Caucus and testifies regularly at the ITC to save our steel industry from unfair imports. He's used his position on the Appropriations Committee to bring millions of dollars to locks and dams in Western Pennsylvania's river navigation system. Jack has worked closely with every college in the area to strengthen their educational offerings and their jobs base. He funded the Center for Global Competitiveness at St. Francis and St. Vincent Colleges, and the National Education Center for Women in Business at Seton Hill College, to help small businesses grow. He has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars for sewer and water infrastructure, key highway projects and airport improvements. And he has led the way in making tourism a major economic contributor with improvements at area National Parks, Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area and Path of Progress National Heritage Tour Route, and numerous stream clean up and trail projects, especially the Great Allegheny Passage-Cumberland and Pittsburgh Trail that passes through Fayette, Westmoreland, Allegheny and Washington counties, and the Mainline Canal Greenway from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg along the Allegheny, Kiskiminetas and Conemaugh Rivers.

There's no stronger advocate for children, seniors and veterans. Jack fights for patients' rights; prescription, long-term, catastrophic and home-health coverage; and improved Medicare benefits. He twice saved the health care program of retired miners, emphasizes the special needs of rural health care, won Medicare coverage of preventive care, and brought millions to the region for research on breast cancer, prostate cancer, child cancers, diabetes and bone marrow transplants. He advocates for families and children: he aggressively supports the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) program, the Family & Medical Leave Act and the V-chip to limit exposure to violence, works to get technology into schools and to make college aid available to more middle-income families.

Jack's countless honors include the National Breast Cancer Coalition Leadership Award, Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry's Government Leader of the Year, Pittsburgh's River person of the Year, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and the USO's Spirit of Hope Award named for Bob Hope.

Rep. John Murtha's Official Website

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Source:The College Board