HUD Secretary Ben Carson Nixes $31,000 Office Furniture Order Amid Ethics Questions

Ben Carson, the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary, said Thursday that he canceled an order for a $30,000 dining set intended for his government office following an investigation into the redecoration of the room.

"At the request of the secretary, the agency is working to rescind the order for the dining room set," Armstrong Williams, Carson’s business manager and advisor, said in a statement.

HUD spent $31,000 of taxpayer money on new furniture for the office, CNN reported. Carson said he requested the swap because the existing set was "30 to 50 years old and beyond repair." He claimed he wasn’t privy to the amount spent on the furnishings.

"I was as surprised as anyone to find out that a $31,000 dining set had been ordered," Carson said in the statement. "I have requested that the order be canceled. We will find another solution for the furniture replacement."

The statement continued: "My wife also looked at catalogs and wanted to be sure that the color of the chair fabric of any set that was chosen matched the rest of the décor. I made it known that I was not happy about the prices being charged and that my preference would be to find something more reasonable."

The furniture order included a mahogany sideboard, tables and a breakfront with 10 mahogany chairs featuring a blue velvet finish, according to records obtained by CNN.

The table and two pedestals reportedly exceeded $4,000, while two Regent side dining chairs from the David Phoenix Collection totaled $7,920. Two additional armchairs also came to $1,050 each.

The chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) sent Carson's staff a three-page request on Wednesday looking to "determine whether HUD adhered to the applicable spending limitations" regarding the office makeovers, according to the New York Times.

In November, former HUD chief of administration Helen Foster filed an ethics complaint to the federal Office of Special Counsel alleging that the agency reassigned her after she refused to exceed the legal $5,000 redecoration budget. She also claimed that her superiors told her $5,000 was not enough to "buy a decent chair."