*Former presidential candidate and current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson “has been either unable or unwilling to secure the funds that HUD desperately needs to take care of the millions of low-income Americans who rely on public housing and other forms of assistance,” according to a New York Times report.
Mr. Carson, people close to him say, hates asking anybody for money — and has told advisers that he feels acutely uncomfortable asking the president for anything that could be construed as a favor. When the White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, proposed an 18 percent cut to HUD late last year, Mr. Carson reluctantly reached out to the president. Mr. Trump expressed sympathy. Then he told him to “talk to Mick” about the details.
Carson has reportedly told people close to him that he hates asking for money — and “has told advisers that he feels uncomfortable asking Donald Trump for anything that could be construed as a favor.”
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According to Vanity Fair, “when White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, proposed an 18 percent cut to HUD late last year, Carson reluctantly reached out to Trump who told him to “talk to Mick” about the details.”
He eventually negotiated a 14 percent cut. But Carson “often simply seems out of the loop—telling senior staff members at a gathering last spring that the president had given him assurances that HUD’s budget would not be cut at all.”
Meanwhile, Carson’s new HUD mission statement will reportedly drop all mention of discrimination, and it comes right in time for the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act.
The potential change, which reportedly caught the agency’s career staff by surprise, is part of “an effort to align HUD’s mission with the Secretary’s priorities and that of the Administration,” according to a March 5 memo sent to political staff obtained by HuffPost.
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