Chet Edwards For Congress

August 21, 2007

Editorial: Edwards' help still needed at VA

Waco Tribune Herald
By Editorial Staff

If anyone deserves a tribute for working to save the Waco Veterans Affairs Medical Center it is U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards.

He will get it Wednesday when the city hosts a reception in his honor.

But it needs to be more than a tribute. It needs to be a pep rally. As much as Edwards and other allies have done to preserve the hospital, much needs to be done to enhance services and utilize an under-used campus.

In June, a similar reception was held to recognize U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for her decisive efforts in saving the hospital.

In her campaign to save the VA campus, Hutchison made several important visits to Waco, especially when she accompanied both the VA secretaries on tours of the facility.

She also sponsored legislation to designate the hospital a “mental health center of excellence.”

But no one was as diligent about this task as Edwards. His hands-on efforts helped blunt the proposal to move all of Waco’s mental health treatment programs, blind rehabilitation treatment and geriatric care units to the Olin E. Teague Veterans Medical Center in Temple and to farm its services elsewhere around the country.

Working Hard for Waco & McLennan County

Chet Edwards has worked hard for McLennan County and his hometown of Waco, using his seniority and seat on the House Appropriations Committee to bring some of our tax dollars back home.

Since the November 2004 election, Chet has secured $44 million in investments over Administration budget requests for defense jobs, better roads, protecting the Waco VA Hospital, cleaning up Lake Waco and other key priorities for McLennan County.

Working Hard for Waco & McLennan County I
Fighting to Save the Waco VA Hospital

• Chet secured $3 million for PTSD research in 2005 that will involve the Waco VA, Baylor University and Fort Hood.




• Chet worked with Senator Hutchison to declare the Waco VA a Center of Excellence for Mental Health and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)




• Chet worked with Senator Hutchison to pass legislation prohibiting the VA from reducing the mission of any of the facilities under study by the CARES Commission.