Dec 3, 2012 1 min read

WINDBER (AP) – A cancer treatment program based at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington, D.C., is being named for the late Democrat U.S. Rep. John Murtha and will include a research laboratory in Western Pennsylvania.

The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown reported the John P. Murtha Cancer Center was to be dedicated Monday at the military hospital in Bethesda, Md.

Murtha is being honored because, as the powerful chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, he helped provide funding for the hospital and its research partnership with the Windber Research Institute in Southwestern Pennsylvania, a few miles from Murtha’s hometown of Johnstown.

Murtha died in February 2010 after 36 years representing Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District.