Barbara Lee and 28 Colleagues Call on Bush to Repudiate HUD Secretary’s Comments
(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and 28 of her House colleagues sent a letter to President Bush today, calling on him to publicly repudiate remarks made by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Alphonso Jackson, who recently said he had revoked a HUD contract, based on the political beliefs of the contractor. The text of the letter follows:
May 11, 2006
The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We are writing with great concern about the offensive, potentially illegal and incredible comments of U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson. In short, Mr. President, we call on you to repudiate Mr. Jackson’s comments.
A HUD spokesperson is now telling reporters that the Secretary’s comments in Dallas were “anecdotal” and meant to demonstrate how Washington works. It doesn’t matter if his comments were anecdotal, (which as a matter of semantics, doesn’t mean untrue), whether the story is true or untrue the incident is deeply disturbing to us. In yesterday’s Chicago Sun-Times: “A spokeswoman acknowledged that Jackson told the story. But, she said, the story was untrue. ‘The secretary's story was anecdotal. He is not part of the contracting process,’ said HUD spokeswoman Dustee Tucker. 'He was trying to explain to this group how politics works in D.C.’” While we are relieved to read Secretary Jackson is not involved in the contracting process, the whole story is disturbing on its face.
As you are well aware, Mr. President, this is not how Washington works, nor is it the way your administration should work. If it does, it is illegal, pure and simple. Such comments degrade all of us who are in public service, and tells the American people that politics plays a role in the federal contracting and grant process, which is outrageous.
HUD is an important agency, and we are concerned about the possible broader policy implications of the annual HUD affordable housing funds that are either awarded by competitive grants or are provided to public agencies and non-profits for which HUD regulates such expenditures. As you know, HUD provides billions of dollars of appropriated funds each year under competitive grants for a range of housing programs. These include the Section 202 elderly housing program, the Section 811 disabled housing program, Rural Housing and Economic Development Grants, McKinney/Vento homeless prevention grants, and Fair Housing funding.
Mr. President, we call on you to issue a public statement of repudiation for the unfortunate comments of Secretary Jackson.
Sincerely,
U.S. Representatives Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Carolyn Maloney, Luis Gutierrez, Nydia Velasquez, Melvin Watt, Gary Ackerman, Darlene Hooley, Julia Carson, Gregory Meeks, Barbara Lee, Dennis Moore, Michael Capuano, Ruben Hinojosa, Joseph Crowley, Steve Israel, Carolyn McCarthy, Joe Baca, Stephen Lynch, Brad Miller, David Scott, Emauel Cleaver, Debbie Wasserman Shultz, Gwen Moore, Bernard Sanders, Melissa Bean, Brad Sherman, Al Green
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