[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 25384]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               THE HERITAGE OF NORTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. PAUL E. KANJORSKI

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 27, 2000

  Mr. KANJORSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the 
industrial and cultural coal-mining heritage of Northeastern 
Pennsylvania.
  This Congress recently passed legislation to create the Lackawanna 
Valley National Heritage Area in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Susquehanna and 
Wayne counties in Pennsylvania, and the President signed it into law on 
October 6. Together with the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage 
Corridor and the Schuylkill National Heritage Corridor, this 
designation honors the coal-mining heritage of the people of the region 
and their contribution to powering the industrial Revolution and 
helping the United States win two world wars.
  For the benefit of other members of the House of Representatives who 
may not be familiar with this rich heritage and its legacy, I would now 
like to read into the Record a short statement composed by a friend of 
mine, Mr. Richard Morgan of Shamokin, Pennsylvania.


       Northeastern Pennsylvania has been well blessed with 
     quality people. Thousands of immigrants came to our section 
     of Pennsylvania from the world over.
       Our neighbors became blended together as one. We came to 
     share our lives in a manner that was beyond the belief of 
     outsiders, who had never experienced the unique joy we found 
     in each other. The rich cultural fabric that resulted is 
     second to none.
       The severe economic conditions that have been present for 
     generations in the hard coal regions, have caused most of our 
     sons and daughters to spread themselves, their talents, and 
     their deeply ingrained coal cracker lifestyles far and wide 
     across America.
       Other communities throughout America have benefited by our 
     loss. Our young people were the greatest gifts we had to give 
     our country, even greater than the Anthracite natural 
     resource that was stripped from our region to provide fuel 
     and energy for the Industrial Revolution.
       We who remain in the region, are proud of the achievements 
     of those who have left us for greener fields, green fields 
     that are no longer to be found in the old hometowns, and 
     around the half-doubles they reluctantly left behind, but 
     which they have never forgotten.
       The sound moral values that they learned from their 
     immigrant families, will remain with them forever, wherever 
     they may come to hang their hats.


  Mr. Speaker, in the closing days of this Congress, I would like to 
call to the attention of my colleagues not only the positive parts of 
the anthracite coal's legacy to Northeastern Pennsylvania, but also 
another part of the legacy that can still be seen today: the need for a 
comprehensive reclamation of the mine-scarred land.
  The federal Office of Surface Mining has estimated that the 
restoration of all the land and water in the anthracite region would 
cost more than $2 billion, but until this year, the anthracite region 
has received only about $10 million annually from the federal 
government to restore abandoned mine lands. At that level of funding, 
we will have a critical environmental problem in place for two 
centuries.
  Let us not forget that this is fundamentally an issue of fairness. 
Pennsylvania anthracite coal fueled the Industrial Revolution that made 
America the superpower it is today. Unfortunately, the physical scars 
left by the Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 20th Centuries have 
decreased our competitiveness in the Information Age of the 21th 
Century. As Mr. Morgan eloquently points out, this has had the effect 
of forcing many of our young people to look elsewhere for 
opportunities.
  In the same way that the federal government has made a commitment to 
restoring the Everglades in Florida, a similar comprehensive approach 
is needed to restore the anthracite region in Pennsylvania.
  Restoring the anthracite region is also consistent with the growing 
consensus that it is better to clean up and reuse formerly polluted 
``brownfields'' for industrial development than to wipe out more of 
America's disappearing ``greenfields,'' the untouched open spaces that 
are so important to our quality of life.
  For these reasons, joined by Congressmen Sherwood, Holden and Gekas, 
my three colleagues from Pennsylvania who represent the anthracite 
region, I have sponsored the Anthracite Region Redevelopment Act (H.R. 
4314), to create a new bond program that would provide $1.2 billion in 
30-year tax-credit bonds to finance a comprehensive environmental 
cleanup of the region.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to hail from the hard-coal region of eastern 
Pennsylvania. As Mr. Morgan's statement illustrates well, in the 
richness of our cultural fabric, our work ethic and strong values, our 
love of country, in all these we are second to none.

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