On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said that the agency “can be very efficient in a different” headquarters and “we want to create an environment here, including our building, where people want to be proud of where they come to work and carry out the mission and the assignment that we have.”
Turner said that his first priority “is to carry out the mission, to serve the people that we’ve been called to serve, to deregulate, to bring down regulations so that we can build more affordable housing. … Disaster, you think about what just happened in the southeast, the fires in L.A., the floods in Asheville, NC, which I just came back from, to get resources out the door, to help families to rebuild and businesses to rebuild and individuals to get back to their home. And so, those are our top priorities here, deregulation, and also expanding opportunity zones, which we’ll talk about.”
Host Bret Baier then asked, “I do want to talk about opportunity zones, but I also want to talk about this place, this headquarters building. This is Housing and Urban Development, and everybody I talk to, not — aside from you, aside from your folks, they said, I’m sorry for the building, it’s just not good. And you look around, there are some serious problems here, where tens of millions of dollars have been pumped in for decades. So, what are you going to do?”
Turner answered, “Well, it’s a culture issue. It’s a stewardship issue. And you’ve seen, you and I walked around the building, and you’re exactly right. HUD is known as the ugliest building in D.C., which is not a mantra I like. The culture, just complacency, if you will. HUD serves the most vulnerable in our country. But, over the last few years, and even over the last decade, this has kind of settled in that mediocrity is okay. And, you know what, Bret, mediocrity, to me, is not good. We’re striving for excellence. And so, we want to create an environment here, including our building, where people want to be proud of where they come to work and carry out the mission and the assignment that we have. And so, we’re working on this building. It’s a stewardship issue. We’re spending taxpayer dollars. And so, I think we can be very efficient in a different place.”
Baier then asked, “In a different place, moving everybody out?”
Turner responded, “Yes.”
Baier followed up, “And does that — that doesn’t mean closing down HUD?”
Turner answered, “No, sir, and so, we’re working closely with GSA and our mission is our mission. We’re focused on the main thing here at HUD. But what it does mean is to create a different paradigm, create a different culture. And when I was in the NFL, a lot of times, guys, when they left one team and went to another, just that move alone reinvigorated that player when they went from one team to the next. Well, we’re a team here at HUD and we’ve got to get better facilities.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
