By Patrick Gregory, a public history major at Shepherd University and student intern at the Byrd Center.

Since the end of WWII, members of the Senate and House of Representatives have often gone on trips abroad called congressional delegations, or CODELs. These delegations provide opportunities for members of Congress to gain firsthand knowledge of the nations that the United States has diplomatic relationships with, develop personal and professional relationships with foreign officials and dignitaries, and to negotiate important policy matters. Senator Byrd went on numerous CODELs across the world during his six decades in Congress, including two trips to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) following the opening of diplomatic relations in the 1970’s.​

​By Jody Brumage

In the middle of his first term in the United States Senate in 1963, Senator Robert C. Byrd secured federal appropriations to support flood control and river navigation projects. Many of these projects were authorized through the Flood Control Act of 1962 which authorized the use of federal funding, administered through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to construct dams, levies, and other flood protection infrastructure. In West Virginia, several projects authorized under this legislation were located along the Ohio River which forms the western border of the state and has historically acted as a major industrial transportation route for coal and other goods and resources. In 1965, Senator Byrd successfully increased funding for flood control projects in West Virginia to $45 million and initiated a series of programs to take advantage of the many facets of these large infrastructure projects.