Ernest Graves
A:
Right at the outset. Those of us who discussed it at the time felt it showed that Carter
did not appreciate the difference between the situation when he was governor and
working with the legislature in Georgia, where the governor dominated things, and the
situation here when he was President and working with the Congress. The President of
the United States does not dominate the U.S. Congress the way governors in many
states dominate the state legislature. Just a totally different situation. Carter and his
advisors from Georgia did not grasp this.
Q:
That's a very significant point.
A:
That's the reason he thought, apparently, that with the support of the environmental
groups, they would steamroller Congress. It did not have that effect.
Q:
So the whole episode has an importance, really, that transcends water resource
development.
A:
I think it does. It is probably also true that this was the first serious challenge to the
water resource program. Presidents had always basically gone along with the
congressional desire for this work.
I don't mean that the Nixon and Ford White Houses had not been very skillful in
limiting the amount of money spent on water resources, but basically, President Ford,
having come from Congress, felt this was very important politically to the members of
Congress, which it was, and he wasn't going to challenge them on that.
Now Carter's was the first serious challenge. As a practical matter, I think the Reagan
administration has had a more drastic effect on the program.
Q:
It has, indeed.
A:
Because they have definitely throttled the money, and this [Assistant Secretary of the
Army for Civil Works William R.] Bill Gianelli did. And, of course, unlike Veysey, who
did not have strong ties with the White House, Gianelli did, and when he said things had
to be a certain way, he meant it because he had the people in the White House and
OMB that he was close to. Veysey lacked those.
In the Carter water project review, Clifford Alexander was very active. He and I went
to meetings together at the White House. At the time of the review, Mike Blumenfeld
was a special assistant. He became Assistant Secretary for Civil Works quite a bit later.
Alexander had brought Mike with him when he came into the Pentagon. Mike was
helping the secretary on a lot of different things. This was really Mike's first exposure
to civil works.
173
Previous Page
