Chet Edwards For Congress

Standing Strong for Texas Farmers & Ranchers

Chet Edwards knows that farmers and ranchers are the backbone of our country and that American agriculture plays a vital role in feeding and clothing our nation:

• Chet opposes the Death Tax, which causes the breakup of family farms and ranches.




• Chet supports the 2008 Farm Bill that will maintain a meaningful safety net for America's producers.




• Chet is a national leader on trying to reduce fertilizer costs by opening up the continental shelf to natural gas drilling.

Congress Comes Through With New Farm Bill

Hillsboro Reporter | May 29, 2008

Edwards: "This bipartisan Farm Bill makes real reforms that will strengthen American agriculture to meet the 21st-century needs of the United States and provide a safe, low-cost food supply for American families."

A new farm bill that will carry the country through 2012 made it through Congress last week.

The conference report on The Food and Energy Security Act of 2007, commonly called the "Farm Bill," was passed by the House of Representatives and Senate on back-to-back days.

Republican Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, along with Democratic Congressman Chet Edwards, were among the members of the Texas delegation supporting the bill.

Covered in the bill are programs relating to commodities, sugar, dairy, conservation, exports and trade assistance, food stamps and nutrition, agricultural credit, rural development, rural electrification, agricultural research, forestry, energy, specialty crops and livestock.

The House passed its version of the bill the end of July, and the Senate passed its bill in December.

Since the original legislation expired December 31, Congress was required to pass several extensions before the conference report was released and acted upon.

Edwards said that the bill makes a $289 billion investment in the American food and farm economy.

KWTX TV: Farm Bureau Asked Texas Delegation To Support Farm Bill Veto Override

KWTX TV | May 21, 2008

President Bush made good on his promise Wednesday and vetoed the $300 billion farm bill, calling it a tax increase on regular Americans at a time of high food prices.

Meanwhile, in a letter to the Texas congressional delegation, the Waco-based Texas Farm Bureau called on lawmakers to support efforts to override the veto.

The letter was sent just minutes after the veto Wednesday, the Farm Bureau said.

"Texas farmers and ranchers have been waiting patiently through numerous short-term extensions of the 2002 Act and now have 2008 crops planted and moving toward harvest," said Texas Farm Bureau President Kenneth Dierschke in the letter.

March 26, 2008
Police receive $376,000 communications upgrade, thanks to Chet Edwards

By DAVE KUCIFER | Navasota Examiner

U.S. Congressman Chet Edwards met with Navasota city officials on Monday afternoon to announce a $367,000 award to the Navasota Police Department for the upgrade of the department's communication equipment.

Congressman Edwards, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee said the funds would be used for 15 mobile radios to be installed in police vehicles as well as funding other communications technology for the police department.

KXXV TV: Central Texas Dam Getting Multi-Million Dollar Face Lift

March 8, 2008

"Clean energy is part of America's future," said Congressman Chet Edwards in the Whitney Dam Saturday afternoon.

In an effort to continue with his push for clean and sustainable energy sources, Edwards secured roughly 4.5 million dollars in funding to revamp the aging structure.

Built in 1949, Whitney Dam has generated thousands of homes in Central Texas with hydroelectric energy.

But after being online for more than half a century, the structure is showing its age.