Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson said he wasn’t very involved in the purchase of an expensive dining room set in his office because he’s “not really big into decorating” and was focused on other things, allowing his wife to take the lead.
Carson explained Tuesday during a budget request hearing to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation the events that occurred leading up to the media coverage of an expensive price tag on the remodeling of his office.
Carson said after his confirmation he was told it was normal for new secretaries to redecorate their offices when assuming their positions.
“You know, I’m not really big into decorating. If it was up to me, my office would probably look like a hospital waiting room,” Carson told the subcommittee, but added he invited his wife Candy Carson to help him change the space.
At first, Carson said the cost for renovation was only $3,500 because he used old furniture and remained thrifty by using drapes he found in the basement.
However, a few month later he was told the 50-year-old dining room set had to be changed because a chair had collapsed while someone was sitting in it and other complained they were being stuck with nails.
He said he approved a new dining room set to be purchased, but was unable to be part of the selection process because he “had so many other things to do at that point” with no assistant or deputy secretaries to help.
“The next thing that I, quite frankly, heard about it was that this $31,000 table had been bought,” Carson said. “I investigated it, immediately had it canceled. Not that we don’t need the furniture, but I thought that that was excessive.”
An official at HUD, Helen Foster, said the push to redecorate the office came from Carson’s wife, who ordered Foster to find more money to decorate, even though budgetary limits prevent redecorating spending from going above $5,000.
The whistleblower who brought attention to the costly purchase said that she was demoted after refusing to comply with Candy Carson’s requests.
Carson said during the hearing he wasn’t aware of who the whistleblower was and claimed he would never issue repercussions against people for doing their job.
