Chet Edwards For Congress

July 11, 2006
Congressman Edwards visits Madisonville

Madisonville Meteor
By Tina Baiter | Meteor staff writer

U.S. Congressman Chet Edwards visited Madisonville on Friday, July 7, to talk with county officials and people from the community about funding for a project to widen Hwy 21 and about funding for a new roof at the hospital.

“When I first started coming to Madison County...people talked about transportation and healthcare as two priorities,” Edwards said. “Madison County doesn't ask for a lot from me. You do pay federal taxes...so I've worked to see we get some of your tax dollars back.”

In June, Edwards announced that he secured $1 million to widen Highway 21 under the 2007 Transportation Appropriations Bill, which has passed the House of Representatives.

He also announced he secured $165,000 to construct a roof for Madison St. Joseph's Health Center under the 2007 Labor, Education, Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill, which passed the House Appropriations Com-mittee. That money has not yet passed the House's approval though.

“This is a perfect example of a partnership of local and county governments working to get with the federal government,” Edwards said. “It was just a privilege for me to be your voice in congress. This (funding for Hwy 21) was my first request on the Transportation Appropria-tions Bill this year.”

Working Hard for Madison County

Chet secured $100,000 to install lighting at Madisonville’s athletic fields, so the facilities can be used for Little League games and other community activities in the evenings.

As the father of two young sons, Chet strongly supports projects that encourage children to be active outdoors.


As a member of the Rural Health Care Coalition, Chet is working to protect rural hospitals from hurtful budget cuts.

Chet is fighting to save vocational education funding and opposes taking tax dollars away from public schools to subsidize wealthy private schools.

Chet supports legislation that will bring affordable high-speed Internet access to our rural communities.