________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
A:
The fact was that we had testified one way. Secretary Gianelli sought not to take on Senator
Byrd directly, but sought to see if he couldn't have us change our ways. Well, we were part
of the administration and, of course, had to do things in accordance with administration
policy. Nevertheless, we also had responsibility to call a shot a shot. If this was a standard
project flood design, it's a standard project flood. The secretary had some consternation with
us because we kept sending him plans and designs and programs that he didn't want. Yet, it
represented the way you solve that particular problem, given what we were given.
General Kem with Mr. William R. Gianelli, who was Assistant Secretary of the Army for
Civil Works from 1981 to 1984.
Then he would get calls from Senator Byrd, "Where is it now?" He told me that he didn't
understand why Senator Byrd's office was always pressuring him to give him things that he
didn't even know about yet, insinuating that we were calling Senator Byrd and telling him to
call. The facts were that Senator Byrd's staff was very good and he was very personally
attuned to this project. In fact, they were calling us weekly, sometimes daily, asking where
277
Previous Page
