Chet Edwards For Congress

Protecting our Children

• Chet is working to keep children safe online with tougher law enforcement against sexual predators who use the Internet to prey on children.




• Chet voted to establish and fund the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, which has led to over 5700 arrests.




• As a father, Chet strongly believes in cleaning up our public airwaves and restricting minors' access to violent and inappropriate video games. Chet has voted to increase fines on broadcasters who violate decency standards and air profane material.




• Chet has supported efforts to help local law enforcement crack down on drug dealers, and is particularly concerned with the proliferation of crystal methamphetamine (meth) labs in rural Texas communities.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008
City, hospital receive federal funds for repairs

Madisonville Meteor
By Dave Lewis | Meteor staff writer

Madison County residents will be seeing visible proof of their tax dollars at work this coming year with federal funds coming here to help repair the roof at Madison St. Joseph Health Center and to resurface Collard Street.

According to an announcement Thursday, Dec. 27, from the office of U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, $117,000 has been earmarked to renovate the roof and emergency room at Madison St. Joseph, a 57-year-old non-profit facility.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

BV tallies $41 million in earmarks

The Bryan College Station Eagle

By JANET PHELPS |Eagle Staff Writer

More than $41 million will be poured into Brazos Valley projects next year, thanks to earmarks by U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco.

President Bush criticized special project money as "wasteful government spending" when he signed the $555 billion bill Wednesday that funds the Iraq war into 2008 and keeps government agencies running through September.

The money will go to 16 projects in Brazos, Robertson, Madison and Grimes counties. The projects range from high-profile aerospace engineering and biofuel research at Texas A&M University to a small, church-based drug prevention program.

Edwards said Friday he was proud of the federal money he secured for local projects because it's an effective way to encourage local growth.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to make appropriations, he said, and earmarks allow local leaders to identify and receive funding for projects they see as important.

"I believe [locally initiated projects] make more sense than letting some bureaucrat in the Office of Management and Budget in Washington, D.C., make decisions about what projects to fund," he said. "I would challenge anyone to criticize agricultural research at A&M or emergency response training that help make our cities safer."

A majority of the $41.6 million will go to Texas A&M, including $985,000 for biofuels research and $705,000 for aerospace engineering projects that are used by NASA for lunar and Mars exploration.

Ken Peddicord, director of Texas A&M's Texas Engineering Experiment Station, said the funding is an important step in advancing research into new energy sources.

Texas A&M's BioEnergy Alliance -- a partnership between the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and the Texas Engineering Experiment Station -- has developed groundbreaking research in alternative fuels such as sorghum that do not come from food sources, he said.

"This money allows the program to strike off in new directions, to move away from corn and ethanol," he said.

St. Joseph Health System also received money for repairs to its Madisonville hospital.

Gentry Woodard, director of legislative affairs and grants for the St. Joseph Health System, said employees at the 57-year-old hospital have volunteered on weekends to make repairs themselves.

Edwards said the staff dedication is one reason he allotted $117,000 to pay for repairs to the roof and emergency room upgrades.

"It was terribly important to that community," he said.

The earmarks come on top of the 2008 defense appropriations bill that was signed into law in November, in which Edwards secured $6.8 million for Texas A&M defense projects and $2.6 million for Lynntech Inc.

Other local earmarks include:

• $392,000 to repave County Road 172 in northern Grimes County.