This month, the Trump administration proposed cutting billions of dollars from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in a move that would decimate programs that help the homeless, poor, and elderly. In response, secretary Ben Carson tweeted that the proposal would “focus on moving more people toward self-sufficiency,” and that despite the gouge, H.U.D. would still be able to “make significant enhancements to our programs where needed.” And apparently, some of those enhancements are happening in Carson’s own, formerly shabby office!
The New York Times reports that department officials spent $31,561 on a new dining-room set for Carson‘s office at H.U.D. HQ, under the direction of his wife, Candy Carson, a “frequent visitor” who “serves as an informal adviser to her husband.” The officials/interior designers did not request approval from the House or Senate Appropriations Committees, despite the fact that federal law says congressional approval must be granted “to furnish or redecorate the office of a department head” if the cost is more than $5,000. Although the lavish redesign was met with resistance from at least one person internally—Helen G. Foster, a former top H.U.D. official, who filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel saying she’d been transferred and demoted after pushing back on Candy’s desire to circumvent the $5,000 cap—Candy was going to get her custom table, chairs, and hutch come hell or high water. According to the Times, she started pressuring people to get moving on sprucing up the place even before her husband was officially confirmed, with the interim H.U.D. chief, allegedly acting on Carson‘s behalf, telling Foster, “$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair.”
In a truly amazing statement in response to the story, H.U.D. spokesman Raffi Williams told the Times that Carson “didn’t know the table had been purchased,” but thinks the cost is totally reasonable and has no plans to return it. “In general, the secretary does want to be as fiscally prudent as possible with the taxpayers’ money,” Williams added. “Secretary Carson, to the best of our knowledge, is the only secretary to go to the subbasement at his agency to select the furniture for his office.”
This being the Trump administration, Carson is unlikely to face even a cursory wrist slap, considering his view of what constitutes being prudent with taxpayer money seems to be in line with just about everyone else’s. Earlier this month, Veterans Affairs chief David Shulkin admitted his chief of staff made up an award so he could take his wife on a taxpayer-funded European vacation, and while she “resigned,” he remains in his post having learned “lots of lessons” from the incident.
