Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski was first elected to the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 11th Congressional District in 1984.

Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski was first elected to the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District in 1984. He represents five counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania – most of Luzerne County, more than half of Lackawanna County, and all of Carbon, Columbia and Monroe counties.

Congressman Kanjorski has become a leader in working with local governments, the business community, and others, to fashion a regional approach to economic development and job creation. Most recently, he began an initiative with the Northeastern Pennsylvania economic development community to entice financial institutions in New York City to select Northeastern Pennsylvania as a site for back-up facilities to ensure the continuity of business operations for critical participants in the financial services industry. His position as the most senior Democrat on the Capital Markets Subcommittee has been instrumental in these efforts.

In the 11th Congressional District, Congressman Kanjorski is best known for his efforts to harness federal resources to stimulate economic development and job creation, and to advance vital projects such as the $200 million Wyoming Valley Levee Raising Project to protect residents from flooding and the $48 million renovation of the VA Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre.

Congressman Kanjorski has worked with area leaders to secure funding for key economic development projects such as $29 million in renovation funding for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.

Restoring passenger and freight rail service from New York City to Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and other areas of Northeastern Pennsylvania, is a top economic development priority for Congressman Kanjorski. He is also spearheading an effort to explore the feasibility of constructing a cargo airport near the intersection of southern Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon counties.

Recognizing that economic opportunity and environmental restoration go hand in hand, Congressman Kanjorski was also instrumental in the creation of the Earth Conservancy, a non-profit, charitable organization that is restoring, preserving, and developing more than 16,000 acres of land throughout Luzerne County previously owned by a bankrupt coal company. In 2002, he also succeeded in his four-year effort to include abandoned mine lands in a new federal law to encourage the cleanup and reuse of contaminated industrial sites, also known as “brownfields.”

Congressman Kanjorski also led the way in assembling CityVest, a nonprofit organization that will act as a developer of last resort for blighted properties in Northeastern Pennsylvania. He worked closely with the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to secure a $1 million grant for CityVest to begin stimulating private investment in some of the more difficult sites in the region.

Congressman Kanjorski is also continuing his efforts to secure approximately $20 billion in innovative tax credit bonds for the comprehensive environmental reclamation and economic redevelopment of the anthracite coal region in eastern Pennsylvania and coal regions throughout the country. In 2000, he and the other lawmakers who represent the anthracite region secured a total of $22 million to undertake environmental cleanup projects related to mining, more than double the usual amount appropriated each year.

Congressman Kanjorski also helped lead the successful effort to secure compensation for workers who were harmed by exposure to beryllium or other hazards at nuclear weapons plants, including workers injured at a plant that operated near Hazleton for more than two decades. He introduced the original bill to provide compensation to workers with chronic beryllium disease. At the Clinton Administration’s request, he later expanded the legislation to cover workers exposed to radiation and other hazards at the plants.

Before his election to Congress, Congressman Kanjorski was a successful trial attorney in Northeastern Pennsylvania. During that time, he served as a worker’s compensation administrative law judge, and that experience served him well in advocating for compensation for injured nuclear defense workers. He also served as solicitor to several communities. Although active in public issues throughout his life, he has held no other elective office. He served in the Army during the early 1960s. He attended Temple University and the Dickinson School of Law. He and his wife, Nancy, have one daughter. They reside in Nanticoke, Pa.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski's Official Website

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Rural America has 25 percent of the nation's people and 83 percent of the land area. (National Association of Development Organizations)