Chet Edwards For Congress

Supporting a Strong National Defense & the War on Terrorism:

Chet Edwards is a leader in Congress on national defense issues. As Chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee and co-chairman of the bipartisan House Army Caucus, Chet is a recognized leader in Congress on national defense issues and a strong voice for supporting our men and women in uniform and seeing that they have the resources to fight the war on terror and defend our homeland.

• Chet is a strong supporter of the war on terrorism and has worked hard to see that our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the globe have the equipment and tools they need to do their jobs.




• Chet led the effort to stop the Department of Defense from cutting two divisions of the Army - some 40,000 active-duty troops - in 2001.

Plans to Expand Oil Reserve Are Clouded

By Ben Casselman | Wall Street Journal | 27 May 2008

Edwards: "It would defy common sense to try to expand the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve during a time of high energy prices."

The decision in Washington last week to stop filling the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is calling into question longer-range plans to expand the reserve's capacity -- a potential blow to the impoverished Mississippi town that stands to gain from the expansion.

The U.S. Department of Energy is pressing forward with plans to expand the world's largest stockpile of government-owned emergency crude, to one billion barrels from its current 727 million-barrel capacity. But while Congress approved the expansion in 2005 in an effort to keep up with rising U.S. oil consumption, it has yet to fund the $5 billion project. With oil prices topping $130 per barrel last week, that funding is increasingly in doubt.

"It would defy common sense to try to expand it during a time of high energy prices," says Rep. Chet Edwards, a Texas Democrat who sits on the subcommittee that will review funding for the expansion.

March 24, 2008

Local company develops Army devices

The Bryan College Station Eagle

By HOLLY HUFFMAN |Eagle Staff Writer

American soldiers may some day soon be able to immediately detect chemical and biological threats through the use of small portable hand-held devices that currently doesn't exist in the field.

And rather than lug around 80 pounds of disposable batteries, military troops may have rechargeable units to power their computers and night vision equipment.

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.

"Security"

Select video:

"While others talk about protecting our homeland and securing our borders, Chet Edwards is doing something about it.

Chet Edwards helped write the law that added 1500 new border agents. He led the fight to build survelliance aircraft in our district to secure our borders and is leading the battle to stop nuclear weapons from being smuggled into our country.

Independent. Effective. For us.

CHET EDWARDS: "I'm Chet Edwards and I approve this message."