Politics

Carson Cancels $31,000 Table Order, Asks If Used Furniture Is Available

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Secretary Ben Carson, the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has requested his agency cancel a $31,000 contract for a dining set criticized in the press.

“At the request of the Secretary, the agency is working to rescind the order for the dining room set,” Raffi Williams, a spokesman for HUD, told The Associated Press Thursday.

Carson has been criticized for the proposed purchase after The New York Times reported that HUD had ordered a custom mahogany table, chairs and hutch set worth $31,000. The order came to light after a HUD employee filed in November with the Office of Special Counsel detailing renovation efforts for Carson’s office.

Carson claimed through a spokesman that he wasn’t aware of the dining set purchase anyway, and that he wonders if he could buy used furniture to revamp the office. Carson said he was “as surprised as anyone to find out that a $31,000 dining set had been ordered,” in a statement released through longtime spokesman and friend of Carson Armstrong Williams.

Carson “made it known that I was not happy about the prices being charged and that my preference would be to find something more reasonable,” Carson said, according to Williams.

Helen Foster, the woman who filed the complaint, claims she was fired for refusing to break agency rules to spend more than $5,000 on the renovation. “5,000 will not even buy a decent chair,” interim HUD Secretary Craig Clemmensen, who was allegedly acting on behalf of Carson’s wife, Candy Carson, told Foster in early 2017, according to the complaint.

The dining set was marked as a building expense, rather than a renovation, though it was meant for a room adjacent to Carson’s office.

Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asked Carson to provide documents pertaining to his redecoration and brief the committee on the process in a letter sent Thursday.

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