Jason Altmire (D-PA-12)

Jason Altmire Congressman Pennsylvania District 4

Jason Altmire is the incumbent in the 2002 -2010 Pennsylvania District 4 and running for relection in the 2012 – 2020 Pennsylvania District 12.

House links: Jason Altmire (D-PA-4)i

Campaign links: Jason Altmire (D-PA-12)i

Jason Altmire Congressional Candidate Pennsylvania District 12

Jason Altmire Biography from House.gov

Congressman Jason Altmire is serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he represents all or parts of six counties in western Pennsylvania.

In all, Jason has authored 44 different legislative initiatives that have passed the House, 27 of which have been signed into law. Nine of those laws are related to veterans, including his bill allowing military families to qualify for the Family and Medical Leave Act, which the first expansion of FMLA since its inception in 1993. He also led the effort to guarantee bonuses for all combat wounded veterans.

As a subcommittee chairman on the Small Business Committee from 2007-2010, Jason twice passed through House legislation that expanded access to capital for small businesses. A leading fiscal conservative Democrat, Jason runs his office so efficiently that he has already returned more than $650,000 to the federal Treasury during his time in office.

After Haiti’s devastating earthquake in January 2010, Jason helped lead the high-profile mission to rescue two constituents trapped in Haiti along with the 54 orphans under their care, safely bringing the entire group to the United States.

Jason is a frequent guest on a number of national television news programs and has been profiled in a variety of national media outlets.

Voting Record: Jason is consistently recognized as one of the most independent members of Congress. A recent non-partisan study of congressional votes identified him as having a reliably centrist voting record. He is the only member of the House who has never missed a vote during the past three sessions of Congress, having cast more than 4,500 consecutive votes since being sworn-in to the House in 2007.

Background: Jason grew up in Lower Burrell, Pennsylvania and attended Burrell High School, where he was a record-breaking two-sport athlete. He received his bachelor’s degree from Florida State University, where he was a member of the school’s first Sugar Bowl championship football team. He later earned a Master’s Degree in Health Administration from George Washington University.

Prior to his election to Congress in 2006, Jason spent 15 years in health care policy, working as a congressional staffer, a hospital association executive and for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Jason currently lives in the North Hills of Allegheny County with his wife, Kelly, and their two daughters.

Biography of Jason Altmire from Citizens for Altmire

Congressman Jason Altmire represents Pennsylvania’s Fourth Congressional District, which includes all or parts of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Lawrence, Mercer and Westmoreland Counties. First elected in 2006, he has quickly established himself in Congress as a reliably independent voice for western Pennsylvania.

Taking Action

Jason Altmire is an active member of our community, frequently traveling across the district to visit with families, business owners, seniors and veterans to hear their views and turn their concerns into action. When the government was dragging its feet in responding to Beaver and Allegheny County businesses impacted by severe flooding, Jason summoned the SBA’s top disaster loan official to western Pennsylvania to view the damage and personally respond to the businesses owners.

When he learned from a constituent that local technology start-ups were having trouble accessing capital, Jason held a congressional hearing on the matter and passed through the House legislation to correct it. And when he learned that the government was inexplicably using Chinese steel to build the U.S.-Mexico border fence, Jason personally traveled to the border to inspect the steel and work with the Border Patrol to make sure that from now on the fence will only be made with American-made steel.

Nowhere has he been more active than in working to help our nation’s veterans. In all, Jason Altmire has passed into law seven different major pieces of legislation dealing with veterans issues, including ensuring that military families are, for the first time, covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Altmire’s bill to extend small business loans and other assistance programs for veterans and reservists was signed into law in 2008, as was his bill to improve services for veterans impacted by traumatic brain injuries. Perhaps most notably, when Jason learned that the Pentagon had been withholding enlistment bonuses from some combat-wounded veterans, he took the lead in passing into law his legislation to correct the problem and guarantee that every combat-
wounded veteran will received every penny of the enlistment bonuses that they have earned.

Not content with simply introducing legislation for show, or sponsoring bills that never pass the House, Jason has an extraordinarily successful record of legislative achievement. In all, 42 different bills or amendments he has authored have passed the House, and 25 of Jason’s legislative initiatives have been signed into law, 8 dealing with veterans.

Voting Record

Congressman Jason Altmire has repeatedly been recognized as one of the most centrist, politically moderate members of the U.S. House of Representatives. In fact, separate research projects by the National Journal and Congressional Quarterly, two different highly-respected non-partisan publications, has confirmed that Jason’s independent voting record places him firmly in the ideological center of Congress. And Jason shows up for work; he has never missed a vote and is the only member of the U.S. House of Representatives to have made every one of the more than 4,400 votes cast during the past three sessions of Congress.

Education and Career Prior to Congress

A native of Westmoreland County, Jason grew up in Lower Burrell and attended Burrell High School, where he was a record-breaking two-sport letterman. He graduated from Florida State University, where he was a walk-on on the school’s first Sugar Bowl championship football team. He also has a Master’s Degree in Health Administration from George Washington University.

From 1991 to 1996, Jason worked as a Legislative Assistant in the Capitol Hill office of former U.S. Congressman Pete Peterson of Florida, a decorated military veteran who later became the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam. Jason then went on to work for the Federation of American Hospitals and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, before being elected to Congress in 2006.