Chet Edwards For Congress - Waco VA Hospital

Working Hard for Waco & McLennan County

Kat — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:51:11 -0700

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 $74 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 -- VA & Jobs

Kat — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:49:47 -0700

Working Hard for Waco & McLennan County

Fighting to Save the Waco VA Hospital

Since 2006, Chet has secured $5.7 million for innovative Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) research at the Waco VA in collaboration with Ft. Hood and Baylor University.

As Chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, Chet recently wrote and passed the largest budget increase -- $11.8 billion -- in the history of the VA. This record level increase has led to the increase of the number of employees at the Waco VA by 127, the Waco Regional office by 138, and made possible $49 million for five new construction projects on the Waco VA campus starting in 2008.

Working alongside area veterans, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and local leaders, Chet spearheaded the fight to keep the Waco VA open, and expand its mission as a National Mental Health Center of Excellence.

Strengthening our National Security and Protecting Jobs at Home

Chet has secured $26.64 million for Waco's L-3 for work on key defense and homeland security projects, including $16 million for refurbishing the P-3 aircraft, which is an important tool for border patrol and drug interdiction efforts, $9.1 million for upgrades to the E-6B aircraft and $1.5 million to upgrade communications systems on the Navy's Special Projects Aircraft.

Chet secured $1.3 million for McDowell Research Corporation for work on advanced fuel cell technology.

Chet has secured $3.1 million for ACT I, to improve detection of biological and chemical agents.

Officials unveil $120 million in projects for the Waco VA

econnor — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:11:31 -0700

Friday, March 28, 2008

Waco Trib: Officials unveil $120 million in long-term projects for the Waco VA

Waco Tribune
By David Doerr

Officials unveiled proposals for two major construction projects at the Waco Veterans Affairs hospital campus Thursday, coinciding with a visit by the country’s top veterans administrator, Secretary James Peake.

The new projects, costing $120 million, would expand long-term care and mental health treatment facilities at the veterans medical center, which was being considered for closure only 15 months ago.

In January, local VA officials learned that $49 million in so-called minor construction projects had been budgeted at the hospital. Construction could begin on those five projects as soon as summer 2009.

The major construction projects unveiled Thursday, which are years away from being budgeted in Congress, are long-term projects considered “way down the line,” said Tom Smith, the Central Texas veterans health system administrator over facilities planning.

“These projects are if somebody asked us what our vision would be for the next step,” Smith said. “It’s nothing official.”

The proposed construction at the Waco VA hospital — funded and unfunded — as well as Thursday’s visits by Peake, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, are signs of renewed vitality at the almost 76-year-old hospital.

Continued development of a new research center on mental health treatments for returning military personnel, the focus of Peake’s stop at the hospital, is another sign of progress at the medical center.

Peake said mental health research, especially on post-traumatic stress disorder, will be extremely important to “get it right” for a new generation of veterans. The research center, open since August, is a collaboration among Fort Hood, Texas A&M University Health Science Center and the VA.

“The opportunity to link in with a military facility like Fort Hood with the troops that are coming and going gives us a chance to intervene early to understand what that early intervention will do,” Peake said. “I am excited that we had a vision to keep (the Waco VA) moving as a Center of Excellence in an area that is such an important area of research.”

Peake said he is committed to supporting the work at the research center to find effective mental health treatments for those he described as the “next greatest generation.”

Hutchison, Edwards and Peake listened to a progress report about the research center’s first eight months, featuring an announcement that the center had secured almost $23 million in funding from various federal agencies and foundations. Dr. Suzy Bird Gulliver, who has led the effort to establish the center, said she continues to recruit staff and plans to start clinical treatment by summer.

Gulliver said 69 researchers and 12 universities are interested in collaborating or consulting with the center. She said she hopes to hire all the lead staff by September. The center eventually will employ about 50 full-time personnel.

Hutchison, R-Texas, said the center already fits what she envisioned when she wrote the legislation establishing it. Two other so-called “Centers of Excellence” for veterans’ mental health care recently were established on the West and East coasts.

“When I first had the concept of a Center of Excellence for mental health, it was the (Waco VA) campus that made me think that this was where the mental health center should be,” she said.

Edwards, D-Waco, said the positive developments at the Waco VA should dispel the doubts of those who believed resources would be drained away from the hospital even after it was announced that it would remain open in December 2006.

“That is just not going to happen,” he said. “The truth is that the Waco VA is now aggressively expanding its health care and research services, and we have only just begun.”

Edwards and Hutchison, who hold high-level positions on veterans spending committees, have said they intend to focus their efforts on securing congressional authorization for a $95 million expansion of the Waco VA’s main hospital building, which sits mostly vacant.

The project would consolidate outpatient services and more than double the size of the building while preserving its historic architectural features. However, it will likely be the 2010 fiscal year before the project is budgeted because of VA funding cycles.

Gulliver said she was honored to have Peake, a former army surgeon general, visit the Waco VA campus so quickly after his appointment in October.

“I think it really speaks to the fact that Washington is very much in support of the center and trying to do their very best,” she said. “It’s just so wonderful to see all of the support coming together from the central office and from our elected officials.”

Our veterans are finally getting what they've earned

econnor — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:11:31 -0700

The Dallas Morning News

OPINION

Chet Edwards: Our veterans are finally getting what they've earned

Benefits increase is a fulfilled promise long overdue

Monday, February 11, 2008

This week is National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans Week, an appropriate time for Americans to count our blessings and thank our veterans, who have sacrificed so much on behalf of the American family.

At 155 VA hospitals across our nation, veterans face daily the physical and mental wounds of combat long after their military service has been completed. We can never fully repay our debt of gratitude, but we have a moral obligation to support them with our words and our deeds.

At the Dallas VA hospital, there is a tradition of schoolchildren bringing Valentine's cards to our veterans. Year after year, I have seen on the faces of veterans, young and old, the gratitude of knowing their service has not been forgotten. If you live near a VA hospital or clinic, take the time to visit and say "thank you." Those two simple words can make a big difference in the lives of those who have done so much for us.

If you don't live near a VA facility, call a veteran you know and thank them for their service. If you're traveling through an airport and see a young serviceman or woman departing for combat, let these veterans of tomorrow know you are grateful.

For those of us in Congress, it is vital that we support our veterans not just with our speeches, but with our budgets. At long last, it's a new day for America's veterans. After years of VA budgets that barely kept up with inflation, the new Congress has kept its promise to honor veterans with historic budget increases.

In 2007, the new Congress increased health care and benefits funding for veterans by $11.8 billion, which was $5.5 billion more than requested by the president. This is the largest funding increase in the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration and a larger increase than the combined total of the six previous years in Congress.

Our veterans have earned every dime of this funding.

For 5.8 million veterans in the VA health care system, it will mean better care, more doctors and shorter waiting lines for medical appointments.

For the 400,000 veterans backlogged in the VA claims processing system, it will mean 3,100 new claims processors to reduce the unconscionable six-month delay for those waiting to receive their earned benefits.

For Iraq and Afghan war veterans, it will mean everyone coming into the VA system will be screened for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

For the most severely wounded vets, it will mean modernized polytrauma centers and a new polytrauma center in San Antonio, the first of its kind anywhere in the Southwestern United States.

For veterans from all wars with mental health issues, it will mean a minimum of $2.9 billion dedicated to better mental health care services, a $700 million increase over last year.

For veterans in rural areas far from VA hospitals, it will mean more VA clinics closer to home, and for the first time since 1979, when gasoline prices were 95 cents per gallon, VA travel reimbursement is increasing from 11 cents to 28.5 cents per mile.

For all Americans who never want to see one veteran living in the squalid conditions Army soldiers were subjected to at Walter Reed Annex 18 last year, it will mean nearly $1.5 billion in new funding to do preventive construction maintenance at our VA hospitals and clinics.

For thousands of homeless veterans, increasing the homeless program by $23 million will mean the dignity of a roof over their heads and hope for the future.

In just 12 months, the new Congress has come a long way in keeping our promises to those who have kept their promise to serve our nation, but we should do more. In the weeks, months and years ahead, let us all work together to thank our veterans with our words and our deeds. They deserve no less.

Editorial: People, not bricks

econnor — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:11:31 -0700

Friday, February 08, 2008

Waco Trib: Editorial: People, not bricks

Waco Tribune-Herald Editorial: People, not bricks

That the Department of Veterans Affairs will devote $49 million to improving the Waco VA Medical Center is the biggest news since the hospital was spared the executioner’s blade.

But let’s acknowledge upfront that we’ve heard something like this before.

Indeed, the hospital was undergoing $12.4 million in construction and renovation when the VA started talking like it could do without the Waco campus.

However, that was before the United States started making more combat veterans in Afghanistan and Iraq — prolonged engagements in which as many as one-third of combatants have had to deal with mental health issues.

In other words, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were causes for the role of the Waco VA hospital, with its historic function of psychiatric care, to accelerate rather than to be phased out.

A giant in making better use of this hospital has been U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards. He has shifted from being one of many citizens and officials scratching their heads over an indefensible proposal to the point man in boosting VA spending overall.

With it, in the budget signed by President Bush, come dollars to do vital things at the Waco VA:

Creating the Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans in renovated Building 93.
Relocating and expanding the Blind Rehabilitation Unit. Expanding it to 30 beds.
Expanding and enhancing provisions for residential acute, intermediate and long-term psychiatric care at one building.
Renovating long-term care facilities and enhancing rehabilitative facilities, including a pool.
Repairing and replacing critical infrastructure needed to support the campus and new programs.

What this means is that the VA isn’t just applying a few Band-Aids to a beat-up and weathered hospital that will limp along into an uncertain future. It means the future is most assured. It means the hospital’s function is most vital to serving the nation as soldiers return from war.

The development is a tribute to many — Edwards and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison heading the list, as well as local officials and veterans who would not accept a decision that seemed to look at the hospital as bricks and mortar with no human lives attached.

It was much more, and Wednesday’s announcement says as much.

Waco VA gets $49 million for expansion projects

econnor — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:11:31 -0700

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Waco Trib: Waco VA gets $49 million for expansion and renovation projects

Waco Tribune
By David Doerr

Millions of dollars are on the way to the Waco Veterans Affairs Medical Center this year to expand and renovate the 75-year-old hospital campus, U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, announced Wednesday.

A series of five projects at the Waco VA campus, each costing $9.8 million, for a total of $49 million, were funded with the passage of the federal omnibus spending bill last year. Edwards, chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee over VA spending, shepherded a historic $11.8 billion increase in veterans spending through Congress last year, enabling the Waco projects to receive funding.

The projects include:

Creating the Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans: Space in the mostly vacant Building 93 will be renovated for the new mental health research center, including offices and labs.

Relocating and expanding the Blind Rehabilitation Unit. The program will be relocated to Building 9, where it can be expanded to 30 beds. The new unit will include rehabilitation space for vision and life skills, as well as computer and manual skills training.

Expanding and enhancing mental health treatment. The money will be used for existing inpatient acute, intermediate and long-term psychiatry at either Building 7 or Building 8.

Renovating long-term care facilities and enhancing rehabilitative facilities, including a pool.

Repairing and replacing critical infrastructure needed to support the campus and new programs. The project includes building a new central laundry facility for Central and North Texas.

The Bush administration requested $233.4 million for so-called “minor construction” projects, which cost $10 million or less, in its 2008 fiscal year budget. But Edwards added another $397.1 million for such projects across the country, enabling the enhancements at the Waco VA to move forward.

Edwards said the projects were designed to cost less than $10 million each so the VA would not have to seek congressional authorization, which could have taken up to an additional two or three years to receive.

“These expansions will improve medical services for veterans in Central Texas and throughout the country who use the Waco VA hospital,” he said.

Improving services

Most of the projects are aimed at enhancing existing programs at the Waco VA. But the mental health Center of Excellence is a new program that VA officials began developing in August.

The center will study and treat the so-called “big four” mental health problems afflicting soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, depression and substance abuse.

So far, the new research center has operated in temporary work space in a Waco VA building shared by the blind rehabilitation program.

Bruce Gordon, director of the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, which oversees the Waco VA, said the funding announcement was welcome news for veterans and the community.

“I do believe there is much more in store, but this is the first real evidence of projects on the horizon that are just going to be terrific up there,” he said. “It’s a good sign to the veterans that we care about them, that we are serious about our efforts to rebuild that campus. We’re just very excited.”

The funded projects are seen as the first step in a larger initiative to redevelop and modernize the entire VA campus, he said. In a few years, local VA officials want to pursue larger scale projects, including the consolidation of outpatient services in the original hospital building near the medical center’s main entrance.

The consolidation project, which would gut and nearly double in size the original hospital building, would cost just less than $100 million and require congressional authorization, Gordon said. The VA will likely wait until the 2010 fiscal year to seek such approval, he said.

But before larger projects can move forward, the VA needed this initial funding installment to take care of infrastructure issues at the medical center, Gordon said.

New life for hospital

The hospital campus’s fate has changed dramatically since December 2006, when national VA Secretary Jim Nicholson announced it would remain open after facing a threat of closure for more than three years. Local veterans advocate Bill Mahon said the funding announcement will give community members who fought to keep the hospital open a “physical thank you” for their efforts.

“In five years, 10 years max, they are not going to recognize it,” he said. “The buildings will be there but it is going to be a whole new world out there.”

Mayor Virginia DuPuy, who heads a subcommittee charged with developing community and business partnerships to utilize vacant space at the Waco VA, said the funding is encouraging news for the community.

She said she plans to continue her efforts to develop a plan to turn vacant quarters buildings at the VA into permanent supportive housing for Waco’s chronically homeless, some of whom are veterans.

“It will require investment, but it is just so right for the overall campus,” she said. “This is something the VA is interested in. They would like to see that happen.”

The VA’s regional benefits office, currently located in a leased downtown Waco building, could eventually be another occupant of the Waco VA campus. The benefits office has already begun storing cabinets full of nonactive claim folders at a building on the medical center campus.

Edwards said his dream for the Waco VA is for it to become a “one-stop shop” for veteran services.

“I think this is the beginning, not of the end of the expansion of the Waco VA and the services it provides to veterans,” he said.

Editorial: Edwards' help still needed at VA

Kat — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:33:05 -0700

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.

The Waco VA hospital has specialized in treating the mental health problems of veterans for more than 70 years. Over that period an invaluable network of mental health services developed both on the VA campus and in the Waco community.

Edwards worked with community groups while also securing more funding for the VA hospital in Congress.

He was instrumental in securing a joint research project into post-traumatic stress disorder between Fort Hood and the Waco VA hospital.

Although VA Secretary Jim Nicholson finally announced late last year that the Waco VA facility would not be closed, challenges still remain that could again jeopardize the facility.

One of the reasons cited in the original decision to close the hospital was the number of empty buildings and their associated maintenance costs.

Edwards has warned that the fight to preserve the hospital must continue.

A promising plan has been proposed to utilize some of the empty buildings for transitional housing for the homeless, especially veterans.

VA officials have promised to consider the idea.

Besides that program, Edwards’ help is needed as the VA implements plans to expand mental health services nationwide during a time of warfare, bloodshed and psychological wounds on two fronts.

VA Hospital

Kat — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:09:23 -0700

"VA Hospital"

Select video:

"Our fight to keep the Waco VA Hospital open is about respect – it’s about sacrifice – and it’s about keeping the promises we’ve made to those who’ve served.

When some bureaucrats in Washington tried to close our Veterans Hospital, I stood up to them, and I’m fighting to make sure we keep its doors open and keep our word to our veterans.

I’m Chet Edwards, and I approve this message, because I’ll never give in on the promises we’ve made."

Vets for Chet

Kat — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 23:28:53 -0700

August 4, 2006

We are writing you today to ask you to join with us and thousands of other veterans and spouses of veterans in supporting the reelection of an incredibly strong and effective voice for veterans, their families and our military, Congressman Chet Edwards of Waco.

Chet Edwards is the son of a World War II veteran and got his start in politics working for the legendary Chairman of the VA Committee, Congressman Tiger Teague. Because of the profound influence Chet’s dad and Mr. Teague had on him, Chet is an unwavering supporter of veterans and their families. While every political candidate in America will say they support veterans, Chet has a proven record of being a national leader on our issues and is one of the most respected and influential voices in the entire Congress for veterans.

Because of his loyalty to our troops and veterans and his effectiveness in advocating for us, Chet has received numerous awards and recognitions from leading veterans and military organizations including the “Unsung Hero” Award from the American Legion in 2004 and “Legislator of the Year” from the Association of the U.S. Army in 2003.

Chet is the Ranking Member of the Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees $136 billion for annual defense and veterans programs and funds the entire Department of Veterans Affairs. In this capacity, Chet led the successful fight last year to add $2.5 billion to VA health care, preventing what would have been a devastating cut in veteran health care services. Because of Chet’s leadership, tens of thousands of veterans will be able to receive the health care they were promised and earned through their service and sacrifice.

Chet has also led the fight to keep the Waco VA hospital open, galvanizing local opposition and asking hard questions of the VA as they attempted to justify closing the historic facility. The fight is not over, but thanks largely to Chet’s leadership, the Waco VA has an expanded mission and will be conducting critical PTSD research, vital to the health and well-being of thousands of young veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Chet’s subcommittee has also provided the funding for a major expansion of the Brazos County VA Clinic and the creation of a new VA clinic in Southern Tarrant County, which will serve veterans across North Central Texas.

This year Chet introduced legislation to block the Administration’s proposed doubling and tripling of TRICARE premiums for military retirees. Over 100 members of Congress have cosponsored Chet’s legislation, which would transfer the power to increase premiums and fees from unelected bureaucrats at the Pentagon to our elected representatives in Congress. Chet has also led the fight to repeal the unfair “Disabled Veterans Tax,” also known as the concurrent receipt issue. With Chet’s leadership, Congress repealed the unfair provision of the Survivor’s Benefit Plan that penalized survivors of military retirees at age 62. And Chet wrote and passed the legislation that made it possible to have a state veterans cemetery for Central Texas in Killeen, which opened last year. Because it is so important to keep Chet Edwards in Congress fighting for us, we have all volunteered to serve as co-chairs of Vets for Chet 2006. We encourage you to join with us and become involved in Vets for Chet.

Chet Edwards has gone to bat over and over again for us; now it’s our turn to go to bat for him. Thanks in advance for your support, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Chris Adams Major General (Ret.), USAF	John Brieden Veterans Advocate
Michael Gravens Command Sgt. Major (Ret.), U.S. Army Former CSM, III Corps & Fort Hood	Kathryn Henson Former State Commander Disabled American Veterans
Randy House Lt. General (Ret.), U.S. Army Former Commanding General, the Big Red One	Clayton Hueske Former State Commander American Legion
Alvin W. Jones Major General (Ret.), U.S. Army Former Commanding General, 377th Theater Support Command	Dr. Mike O’Bric Marine Corps Mustang
Pete Taylor Lt. General (Ret.), U.S. Army Former Commanding General, III Corps & Fort Hood	Alexander Vernon Former State Commander Veterans of Foreign Wars

Chet on the Radio: For Waco and McLennan County

Kat — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 22:29:53 -0700

Who’s making a difference for us? Chet Edwards

Click the "play" button

Who’s making a difference for us? Think about this.

It’s Chet Edwards who’s stood up to bureaucrats in Washington, and is leading the fight to keep the Waco VA hospital open. Chet Edwards made a promise to honor our nation’s veterans, and he’s keeping that promise, no matter what.

And Chet Edwards is fighting to strengthen Fort Hood to defend our nation, and to clean up Lake Waco for our families. And while others talk about homeland security, Chet Edwards is doing something about it.

Chet Edwards won the fight to build border surveillance aircraft at L-3 in Waco, protecting our local jobs, and securing our borders from drug traffickers and terrorists.

McLennan County is home to Chet Edwards. Chet Edward’s roots here run deep. He’s one of us. He knows what counts, and what he’s fighting for. And that's exactly why those of us in Chet Edwards for Congress, are proud, to have paid for this message.

Congressman Edwards: This is Chet Edwards, running for Congress, and I approve this message.