WASHINGTON -- Complications from gallbladder surgery have sent Rep. John Murtha to a northern Virginia hospital's intensive care unit.

Mr. Murtha, 77, who is on track to become Pennsylvania's longest-serving congressman this month, was hospitalized in December. Doctors determined that the gallbladder was the problem and scheduled surgery to remove it.

A Murtha spokesman confirmed Tuesday that the Johnstown Democrat had the laparoscopic surgery Thursday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., but after complications developed, he was moved to the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va.

As chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, Mr. Murtha has a great deal of control over military spending, but he has yet to schedule hearings on funding President Barack Obama's escalation of the war in Afghanistan and the Department of Defense budget for 2011, which was published this week.

The former Marine and Vietnam War veteran has been in Congress since 1974, and is in his 18th term. The longest-serving U.S. House member from Pennsylvania is Scranton Republican Joe McDade, who served from 1963 to 1999.

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