Earlier this month, the White House released its Fiscal Year 2019 budget proposal, which called for cuts to funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by $8.8 billion. Meanwhile, HUD officials spent more than $31,000 on a new dining set for Secretary Ben Carson's office, The New York Times reports.

According to The Times, federal law requires congressional approval for the redecoration of a department head's office if it costs more than $5,000. Department officials in HUD did not request approval for the $31,561 spent on a custom hardwood table, chairs and a hutch.

Raffi Williams, a spokesperson for HUD, stated that the department did not request approval for the dining set as it was to be considered a "building-wide need" – though it's inside Carson's office suite. Furthermore, Williams said a "career staffer" ordered the dining set and that neither Carson or his wife, Candy, requested a replacement for the dining table already in place. 

Williams said Carson "didn’t know the table had been purchased," The Times reported. 

But a month prior to the $31,000 expenditure, Helen G. Foster, a former top official at HUD, filed a complaint claiming that she was demoted from her position after resisting Candy's requests to circumvent the $5,000 redecoration law. 

Foster claims in January 2017 HUD's interim secretary, Craig Clemmensen, told her – allegedly on Candy's behalf – to secure more money to purchase better furniture for the office. Foster believes she was punished for refusing and therefore removed from her position to oversee Freedom of Information Act requests. Carson's camp claims she was reassigned as part of a routine shuffle.

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