Chet Edwards For Congress -

Edwards Supports PAYGO Legislation

econnor — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Hillsboro Reporter: Edwards Supports PAYGO Legislation

Hillsboro Reporter | January 2010

Edwards Supports PAYGO Legislation

The policy of pay as you go (PAYGO) at the federal level was approved by the House of Representatives last week.

Representative Chet Edwards, D-Waco, was one of 233 House members to vote in favor of the proposal. The nay votes totaled 187.

The legislation incorporated Edward’s PAYGO, making the budget policies permanent law.

The congressman said that the move will begin returning Congress to the fiscally responsible policies that led to budget surpluses in the 1990s.

The measure has already passed the Senate and is expected to be signed into law by the president soon.

“I am proud to have led the fight to make this new pay-as-you-go bill a permanent law, not a temporary one.

“The pay-as-you-go principle makes sense for this Congress and for all future congresses.

“Had it been made permanent in the 1990’s, our national debt today would be trillions less and our children’s future far brighter,” said Edwards, a senior member of the House Budget Committee.

“Adopting pay-as-you-go poli-cies can be a critical part in reviving America’s economy and getting the country back on its financial feet,” he added.

PAYGO policies were originally scheduled to end in 2013 under H.R. 2920, which passed the House in July 2009 before Edwards led the fight to make them permanent.

The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 requires Congress to adopt PAYGO as permanent law and offset the costs of tax cuts or increases in entitlement spending with cuts elsewhere in the budget to prevent increases in the deficit.

If the net effect of all new legislation enacted during a session of Congress increased the deficit, there would be an across-the-board reduction in most mandatory programs.

The new law is based upon the bipartisan PAYGO law that was in place in the 1990s and helped turn massive deficits into record surpluses.

“The pay-as-you-go principle is one that American families and businesses live by everyday.

“You don’t spend money you don’t have,” said Edwards. “We have a moral obligation to reduce deficits and prevent our children from drowning in a sea of national debt.”

In the 1990s with pay-as-you-go budgeting in effect, the federal government balanced budgets and had a projected $5.6 trillion surplus.

When the successful budgeting policy was discontinued in 2002 over the objections of Congressman Edwards and others, the federal government went from a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion to a deficit of $11 trillion, an astounding fiscal u-turn in just seven years.

Edwards concluded, “Without pay-as-you-go policies in place the last seven years, the largest surpluses in national history have turned into the largest deficits in history.

“For the good of our children and our country’s future, it is time to correct that mistake and to see it never happens again.

“We cannot correct overnight the irresponsible fiscal decisions of the past decade, but with this PAYGO bill as the permanent law of the land, we will begin the im-portant process of reducing deficits and balancing the federal budget.”

PAYGO was included in House rules by the new majority in 2007. The Statutory PAYGO Act of 2010 gives it the force of law.

There is a history of bipartisan support for PAYGO: it was enacted by a Republican President and Democratic Congress in 1990, extended by a Democratic President and Republican Congress in 1998 and won 24 Republican votes when the House passed it last July.

Edwards Has $1.3 Million

econnor — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0700

CQ Politics: Texas: Edwards Has $1.3 Million

By Greg Giroux | January 28, 2010

Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) is letting his Republican opponents know they'll have to cough up some cash if they want to take him on.

Edwards' campaign announced Thursday that it began this year with $1.3 million in its account after raising $275,000 in the final three months of 2009.

That is the most amount of money Edwards has ever banked at the top of an election year. He had $1 million in his account at the beginning of 2008; he won his 10th term that November with 53 percent of the vote, defeating little-known Republican Rob Curnock.

Curnock is one of five Republicans running in the March 2 primary for the right to take on Edwards in the Waco-area 17th district.

National GOP officials have made clear they prefer Bill Flores, a retired businessman. Flores last week reported that he raised $416,000 in the fourth quarter of 2009, including more than $300,000 from the candidate himself.

Edwards is a biennial target of Republican strategists who covet his 17th district, where John McCain (R-Ariz.) won two-thirds of the district vote in the 2008 presidential election.

Edwards and his other Republican challengers are required to file detailed campaign reports to the Federal Election Commission by Sunday.

CQ Politics presently rates the Texas 17 race as Likely Democratic.

Bryan bridge project on solid ground

econnor — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Bryan-College Station Eagle: Bryan bridge project on solid ground

Bryan-College Station Eagle
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

By MATTHEW WATKINS

No government official wants to see children walking home from school on a well-traveled, narrow bridge with no sidewalk.

But local leaders have witnessed it and worried for years about the Old Reliance Road bridge that passes over Earl Rudder Freeway in Bryan.

It was such a troubling issue that the Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce ranked expanding the bridge as its top transportation priority for about a decade. And on Monday the Texas Department of Transportation finally broke ground on a $4.2 million project to do so.

The new bridge will have four lanes and a sidewalk. It's expected to be completed in the fall.

"It took us perhaps longer than we wanted," said U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, who said he worked for years to secure funding for the project.

The project eventually was financed by the federal stimulus package that passed through Congress in February 2009. The idea of the funding was to help create jobs. Officials said Monday that it would, but that safety was the top issue.

"The reason I am so excited is we are going to save somebody's life and probably the life of a high school or middle school student," Edwards said. "You can't put a dollar value on saving one child from a serious injury or death."

The bridge is within yards of the border for both Earl Rudder High School and Sam Rayburn Middle School campuses. It's the site of regular traffic jams before and after school and has two narrow lanes with no shoulder or sidewalk. Its edges are lined by guardrails that offer little protection to pedestrians. Still, students use it to walk to and from home and school.

At a groundbreaking ceremony for the project on Monday, about 20 government officials passed over the bridge on a bus and expressed dismay over the hazardous situation those students face.

Finding funding for the project was difficult, officials said.

They said the need for the bridge became glaring when the Bryan Independent School District purchased land to build Rudder High and anticipated an influx of drivers -- especially young ones who just received their licenses.

However, many transportation projects are funded by studies of the number of cars that drive through the area in question. Because the school hadn't been built, the studies suggested that the expansion wasn't necessary, officials said.

Rudder High opened in 2008 with ninth- and 10th-grade students and plans to add a freshman class each year until the campus is full.
"This spring is when those original kids start driving" -- increasing the need for safe roads in the area, said Mike Cargill, superintendent of Bryan schools.

Edwards calls Texas 121 highest priority

econnor — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Cleburne Times-Review: Edwards calls Texas 121 highest priority

Published: January 17, 2010
By Matt Smith

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, said Thursday that the Texas 121 project will be his highest priority.

“I think it’s so important for Cleburne and Johnson County,” Edwards said. “It will be in this and coming years number one as far as area projects for me.”

Plans, long in development, have called for extending Texas 121 from its current location in Fort Worth to Cleburne. The toll road will be known as Southwest Parkway in Tarrant County and Chisholm Trail Parkway in Johnson County.

Plans to break ground on the project appeared imminent in late 2008 and early 2009. Local officials became alarmed last year, however, after rumors surfaced that funding for the project might be diverted to other projects in Tarrant County. Cleburne and county officials contacted state Rep. Rob Orr, R-Burleson, state Sen. Kip Averitt, R-McGregor, and traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit with Edwards.

“Several community leaders came up to Washington last year and said they were worried about Johnson County getting cut out,” Edwards said. “I try not to throw my weight around very often, but I talked to quite a few people at the North Texas Tollway Authority, Texas Department of Transportation and the Regional Transportation Commission.

“Over half the state’s transportation dollars comes from Washington, and [Texas] got a huge infusion of money in the stimulus bill.

“One of the things I wanted to work in is that there’s no way Johnson County is going to get cut out. I think that’s rock solid.”

An award of stimulus funding last year to construct interchanges for the Texas 121 extension in Fort Worth and Cleburne proved vital to the project, Edwards said.

“I know there are other questions, but I think those two [interchange] projects were very important,” Edwards said. “I worked closely with NTTA, RTC and TxDOT, and let me tell you, they did some very creative things to move money around to do some things for the rest of the area. They couldn’t put all the stimulus money into those two interchanges if they hadn’t have done something for somebody else. So they really did work very hard on that.”

Progress on the project, at least in the near future, probably would not have occurred without the interchange funding, Edwards said.

“Both are critical components of getting the rest of the parkway project built,” Edwards said. “Getting $143 million in the stimulus bill, that’s the only way this was going to get funded. Without that, and the $2 billion that Texas got from the stimulus bill for transportation, there’s no way this would’ve have been funded. They would have been so short of money that anything new would have been dead on arrival, which is hard when you have a growing county.

“You know, we’re paying a price for lack of infrastructure investment in Texas. The truth is, the federal share since 2001 has gone up dramatically. Even before the stimulus funding, it had tripled. On the state level, with the exception of the $2 billion bond proposal they passed, state funding has actually gone down from 2001 to 2009.”

Edwards receives transportation award

econnor — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Cleburne Times-Review: Edwards receives transportation award

Published: January 15, 2010
Special to the Times-Review

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, received the Texas Transportation Institute’s Director’s Research Champion Award on Sunday.

The award recognizes individuals at the national level who have been strong and effective advocates for transportation research. Edwards is the first elected official to receive the award, which TTI established five years ago.

“The real research champions are the people in this room who make our roadways safer, or air cleaner and our transportation system more efficient,” Edwards said. “I will treasure this award because of my deep respect for TTI and all that you do.”

TTI officials said Edwards has made transportation a priority during his years of serving District 17, which includes College Station, home of TTI.

“We are honoring Congressman Edwards because he has secured vital federal investments to improve our nation’s transportation system and save lives on our public roads,” said Dennis Christiansen, TTI agency director. “He is a true champion of university research and over many years has been, and continues to be, an outstanding supporter of TTI.”

TTI presented the award to Edwards at a reception held during the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting.

— Special to the Times-Review

Edwards supports estate tax repeal bill

econnor — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:38:44 -0700

Cleburne Times-Review: Edwards supports estate tax repeal bill

Published: December 08, 2009
Special to the Times-Review

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, on Thursday supported House passage of a bill providing a permanent repeal of estate taxes for 99.8 percent of American family farms, ranches and small businesses.

“As we work to strengthen our economy, it is important that we help family farms and small businesses protect and plan for their future,” Edwards said. “The estate tax often hurts economic growth and hits family farms and small businesses the hardest. Under this bill, 99.8 percent of small businesses, ranches and family farms will pay no estate taxes.”

The bill sets the estate tax exemption at $3.5 million for individuals and $7 million for a married couple. For assets more than $3.5 million, or $7 million for married couples, the maximum tax rate on estates is 45 percent.

Without the bill, Edwards said, the estate tax would be eliminated entirely in 2010, and in 2011, the maximum estate tax rate would increase to 55 percent, from 45 percent this year, and would apply to all estates equaling more than $1 million per individual.

“The current law is ridiculous and says if you die in 2010, your heirs pay no estate tax, but if you die one minute after 2010, you have to pay an estate tax rate of 55 percent,” Edwards said.

City leaders ecstatic as Waco Mammoth Site opens

econnor — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Waco Trib: City leaders ecstatic as Waco Mammoth Site opens

Waco Tribune-Herald |
Sunday, December 06, 2009 | By Cody Winchester Tribune-Herald staff writer

At the donor appreciation ceremony that preceded Saturday’s public opening of the Waco Mammoth Site, Ellie Caston, director of Baylor University’s Mayborn Museum, compared the newly developed archaeological site to a mousetrap.

First, the trap must be paid for. This is where Waco’s philanthropic community comes in. Then you’ve got to attract the mice — the public. Last, you need a dedicated staff to come in and clean up afterward — in this case, the Waco Parks and Recreation Department, which will oversee the day-to-day maintenance of the100-acre plot that contains the dig site.

On Saturday, the mice came.

About 550 people showed up at the grand opening, following a winding trail through the wooded parkland to the centerpiece of the $3.4 million development project, a dig shelter covering the bones of Columbian mammoths, a camel and an animal that has yet to be identified.

Sixteen other sets of mammoth bones are in plaster-jacketed storage at the Mayborn Museum, said Anita Benedict, collections manager at the the museum.

At 700 square feet, the shelter covers an area twice the size of the original excavation, Benedict said. A suspended catwalk anchored to steel trusses in the roof hangs over the site.

“For 68,000 years, Mother Nature protected this site,” U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, said. “Now it’s our turn.”

The bones are kept in 72-degree air at 55 to 60 percent humidity to preserve the remains, Benedict said. Bones from another mammoth were found as construction crews drilled the concrete piers for the east wall, but the bones have not yet been unearthed.

“Now we know where it is,” Benedict said, adding that excavation work, for now, will take a back seat to preserving what is already exposed.

The dig shelter is designed for preservation. It has no potentially moisture-trapping wood anywhere in its interior, and its windows allow in only 4 percent of the sun’s ultraviolet rays to cut down on direct-light exposure to the bones, said Sharon Fuller, the Waco park planner and landscape architect who worked on the building.

Anticipating the site’s eventual designation as a national park, planners consulted with the National Park Service to make sure they were following its standards. The building wasn’t named after a donor, for example, and only one plaque listing the site’s principle donors will hang on the wall, Fuller said.

Jane Meyer, whose family foundation provided a $1.7 million matching donation to complete the first phase of development, cut the ribbon to open the site. The nonprofit Waco Mammoth Foundation raised more than $3.4 million to fund the construction, all of which has been used, said Jonathan Cook, the city’s community promotions specialist. Fundraising for phase two has already begun.

At the donor ceremony, city leaders hailed the site as a national treasure, a boon to the local economy and a legacy that will educate future generations and promote cultural exchange.

“This is an incredible time in our community’s history,” Mayor Virginia DuPuy said.

It’s a legacy that could soon get a federal boost. A bill sponsored by Edwards to add the mammoth dig to the national park system passed July 27, a move that was supported by the National Park Service. The Senate version of Edwards’ bill is still in committee.

If the site does becomes part of the federal park system, it will have access not only to another source of funding but also to the National Park Service’s staff paleontologists, Fuller said.

City planners expressed no doubt the legislation will pass.

“It’s going to happen,” City Manager Larry Groth said.

Campbell Kegerreis, a fifth-grader at Hillcrest Professional Development School, said she also was optimistic about the bill’s chances, too.

Campbell was one of 23 students from Hillcrest PDS who came to the donor ceremony to represent the fifth-graders who, in three years, raised more than $600 for the site. The children are planning two more fundraisers to support future development, said their teacher, Jo Anne Beaty.

Ken Hafertepe, a professor in Baylor’s museum studies program, said the Waco Mammoth Site has come a long way from the days when it was a relatively unknown find covered only by a canvas tent.

“It’s wonderful to see it in a climate-controlled environment like this,” he said.

The second phase of the mammoth site project, which Groth said is already in its planning stage, will include developing the surrounding land, building a large visitor’s center with a classroom area, cutting trails to the Bosque River, where water taxis will ferry visitors to and from the site; and carving out space for a state-of-the-art research area to work on the bones.

This last initiative would be handy for Benedict, who said she spends 10 hours in the lab for every hour she spends excavating.

She said she hopes the new plans will include funding for a fossil-preparation lab.

The cost to finish development at the Waco Mammoth Site is $8 million, Groth said.

Revenue from ticket sales will go back into city’s general fund, from which the site’s approximately $500,000 operating budget is drawn, Cook said. Apart from the crews that maintain the grounds, the site has six employees, Fuller said.

The museum is still looking for volunteers to lead tours at the dig site. For more information, call (254) 750-5980.

Edwards votes against HR 3961

econnor — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Cleburne Times-Review: Edwards votes against HR 3961

Published: November 24, 2009
Special to the Times-Review

House Resolution 3961, a physician payment bill that blocks a scheduled reduction in the Medicare payment rate for doctors due to take effect in January, passed the House on Thursday by a 243-183 vote.

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, voted against the bill.

Edwards said he opposed the bill after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determined it would add $210 billion to the national debt over the next 10 years.

Edwards said he supports fixing the Medicare payment problem but believes it should be paid for.

“Our nation is facing a $1.4 trillion deficit this year and next,” Edwards said. “While we must fix the 21 percent planned reduction in physicians’ Medicare payments, it is fiscally irresponsible to not pay for that fix. It is time for Washington to wake up and realize that unchecked federal deficits could harm our economy and our children’s future.”

Edwards said it is ironic that House leaders attached legislation in the bill to make pay-as-you-go budget policies permanent law. Those policies help prevent increases in the deficit by requiring the costs of legislation to be offset with savings elsewhere in the budget, Edwards said.

Edwards said he authored language that passed the House in July to make pay-as-you-go budget policies permanent law and to return Congress to the fiscally responsible policies that led to budget surpluses in the 1990s.

“The pay-as-you-go principle is one that American families and businesses live by everyday,” Edwards said. “It’s just common sense, and what doesn’t make sense is to combine a $210 billion increase in the national debt with a pay-as-you-go bill. That doesn’t send a message that Congress is serious about reducing trillion dollar plus annual deficits.

“People generally understand that deficits will occur during a time of war and national recession, but as the economy is beginning to slowly grow out of the worst recession since the Great Depression, it is time to stop digging the deficit hole deeper. Real pay-as-you-go policies and putting our nation on a glide path to a balanced budget would create the kind of consumer confidence that would help our economy grow both in the short and long run.”

Waco Mammoth Site just about ready for Dec. 5 opening

econnor — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Waco Trib: Waco Mammoth Site just about ready for Dec. 5 opening

Waco Tribune-Herald | Tuesday, November 24, 2009 | By Michael Shapiro Tribune-Herald staff writer

Thirty-one years after mammoth bones were discovered in a ravine near the Bosque River, members of the public will take the first tour of the site Dec. 5.

Gone is the red and white tent that once covered the Waco Mammoth Site’s dig area, and in its place stands a sleek, climate-controlled building to better protect and showcase the bones.

Community and city leaders were excited that the site was less than two weeks and a few landscaping touch-ups away from its opening date.

“The site was discovered in 1978, so this is a joyful day for all the people that have been interested in this site and felt like it had great merit,” said Gloria Young, fundraising chairwoman of the private Waco Mammoth Foundation.

On Monday, Parks and Recreation Department employees described plans for tours at the site, which will start at a welcome center and move along an oak- and mesquite-canopied walking trail to a small amphitheater, where guides will use a variety of props to educate tour-goers on Waco’s 24 Columbian mammoths that were buried in a mudslide some 68,000 years ago.

The tours will cross a bridge over the ravine where the first mammoth skeletons were found and move on to the dig site. The bones are sealed inside a floorless building that stands out not only for its function but also its striking architecture.

Jeff Goodman, recreation superintendent for the Parks and Recreation Department, said the building with its flat, sloping roof evokes Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School while also keeping out the elements and allowing for a constant temperature to preserve the bones inside.

The Waco Mammoth Foundation raised $3.4 million in private donations for the first phase of construction. U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, secured a $200,000 federal grant for the site, and Baylor University and the city of Waco each donated $100,000.
The city will manage the site, with Baylor serving as a partner and continuing its scientific research there.

Legislation passed by the U.S. House and currently working its way through the Senate would make the Waco Mammoth Site the second national monument in Texas after the Alibates Flint Quarries north of Amarillo.

A ribbon-cutting for the site is set for 1 p.m. Dec. 5. Parking won’t be available at the site, but a free shuttle at the Waco Water Park, 900 Lakeshore Drive, will ferry people to the opening.
Normal hours at the site, located at 6220 Steinbeck Bend Road, will start the following week, with the site open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and from 9 a.m. 5 p.m. Saturdays. Tickets will cost between $5 and $7.

House OKs staving off cuts to doctors...Edwards votes no

econnor — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Waco Trib: House OKs staving off cuts to doctors; Waco's Chet Edwards votes no

Waco Tribune-Herald | Friday, November 20, 2009 | Staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House voted Thursday to add more than $200 billion to the deficit to prevent steep Medicare payment cuts to doctors, a move Republicans denounced as a political payoff.

Rep. Chet Edwards, of Waco, was one of only 11 Democrats who voted against the measure, which passed 243-183. The GOP contended that Democrats supported the bill to thank the American Medical Association for backing President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

“This is nothing more than a repayment to the American Medical Association for endorsing the larger health care bill that was on the floor several weeks ago,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.

“This is not a question of payoff to anybody,” retorted Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Doctors are facing a 21 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursement rates in January unless Congress acts first, the result of a flawed funding formula that lawmakers have had to step in nearly annually to block in recent years.

The bill passed Thursday attempts a permanent fix by restructuring the payments to factor in how much doctors spend on various services, among other changes.

Past votes on the issue have been largely bipartisan, but this year the doctor payment issue has become a proxy for the larger health overhaul debate. Only one Republican voted yes Thursday: Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas, an obstetrician.

In a news release Thursday, Edwards said he supports fixing the payment problem but believes it should be paid for.

“Our nation is facing a $1.4 trillion deficit this year and next,” Edwards said in the release. “While we must fix the 21 percent planned reduction in physicians’ Medicare payments, it is fiscally irresponsible to not pay for that fix. It is time for Washington to wake up and realize that unchecked federal deficits could harm our economy and our children’s future.”

Dr. Thomas Valigura, a Waco anesthesiologist who is president of the McLennan County Medical Society, said he understands concerns about the national debt. But fixing physician payments is critical, he said, noting that such spending is not by any means the main driver of the nation’s ballooning deficit.

“I think the physicians of this county aren’t going to think (Edwards) is looking out for their best interests,” Valigura said.

Dr. Bradford Holland, a Waco ear, nose and throat specialist, said if the cuts are not stopped, they will be devastating to care for seniors. Most doctors would have to severely limit the number of Medicare patients they treat, he said.

“We’d be losing money on every (Medicare) patient we saw,” Holland said.

Dr. Steve Raley, head of Hillcrest Health System’s clinic group, agreed that the cuts would present a huge barrier to access to primary care. It’s high time for a permanent fix to the payment problem, he said, rather than a Band-Aid solution that leaves doctors in limbo from year to year.

However, Raley said he hopes Congress can figure out a way to offset the cost of fixing the formula so the deficit won’t be increased.

“I hope they continue to look at that,” Raley said.

Despite intense lobbying by the AMA, the doctor payment legislation failed in the Senate last month in an embarrassing defeat, with moderate Democrats concerned about the deficit joining Republicans to bring it down. That leaves its future uncertain, even though the rate cuts loom in less than two months.

The Obama administration has sought a permanent solution to avoid the uncertainty of one-year payment patches, and House Democrats obliged by including it in their 10-year health overhaul bill.

But before passing the overhaul bill earlier this month, they took out the doctor payment measure, in part to keep the cost of the overall bill low enough to meet Obama’s target price tag. Democratic Rep. Pete Stark of California acknowledged as much during Thursday’s debate.

“The reason it was separated, I would have to admit, was purely political,” Stark said.

Although House Democrats have vowed not to pass legislation that’s not paid for, the doctor payment bill is one of several items they’ve exempted from that rule, and the Congressional Budget Office says it would increase the deficit by $210 billion over 10 years.

Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor and Tribune-Herald staff writer Cindy V. Culp contributed to this story.