Trey Gowdy wants Ben Carson to answer for lavish spending controversy – By Diana Stancy Correll (washingtonexaminer.com) / Feb 28 2018
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., is demanding answers from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson about allegations of lavish spending furniture for his office and retaliation against an agency employee.
The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent a letter to Carson on Wednesday in response to a complaint filed with the Office of Special Counsel by Helen Foster, a HUD employee who claimed she was ousted from her position and then transferred because she refused to find a way to go above the spending cap to redecorate Carson’s office with the purchase of an approximately $31,000 dining-room set late last year.
The letter requests that Carson provide all documents and communications pertaining to Foster and the redecoration of Carson’s office, among other items.
Gowdy wants a response by March 14, followed by a briefing with Carson.
Foster said she was instructed to “find money” for redecoration, even though it would go above the budgetary limits of $5,000,” according to a New York Times report Tuesday.
Congressional approval was not requested to exceed that limit, but the agency claimed that Carson tries to be “fiscally prudent.”
PB/TK – The Party of Conserving doesn’t quite follow their mantra. But does anyone find it odd that in the “America First” age, it was approved to use a company from India to redesign/remodel?
