TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/072489/07248900.038

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 5.9 KB | 116 lines

                ªπ                                                            NATION, Page 20

Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick


For Kemp, the mess at HUD is both a hurdle and an opportunity


    Whether as a pro quarterback or a political pro, Jack Kemp
has always been nimble and quick. Those qualities came in handy
last week, as he dealt with the scandal at the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, which has billowed from a
candlestick into an inferno. Before celebrating his 54th
birthday with 54 cakes from admiring employees, the beleaguered
HUD chief wryly conceded, "When I first took the nomination from
President Bush, I wanted to make HUD a high-profile agency. I
don't think this is what I had in mind."

    In his trial by fire, the personal stakes are high for the
feisty former nine-term New York Congressman who vainly sought
the Republican presidential nomination last year. The
self-styled "progressive conservative" has long turned the neat
trick of attracting right-wing support with his antitax,
free-enterprise economic policies while urging his party to
reach out to blacks by conceiving compassionate programs. He had
hoped to turn HUD into a shining example of how his party could
put capitalist tools to work easing the problems of the poor,
spurring new development in the inner cities and providing
housing for the homeless. But Kemp has found that before he can
house anyone, he must first clean house at HUD.

    Last week, as in all recent weeks, housecleaning swamped
the rest of his agenda. The Secretary did win a brief respite
from his headaches by traveling to Detroit, where he achieved
a rare feat for a Republican leader: he received three standing
ovations from the N.A.A.C.P.'s annual convention. Kemp admitted
candidly that the G.O.P. was "nowhere to be found" in the great
civil rights struggles of the 1960s and vowed that his party
will change. He called on South Africa to "let our people go."
But such pleasantries inevitably faded as he addressed the mess
at HUD, earnestly vowing that he would "work for the people in
need, not those motivated by greed" and would not allow HUD's
troubles to become "an excuse to close down programs for poor
folks."

    Kemp spent much of the rest of the week back among his
former colleagues on Capitol Hill, fielding tough questions from
two House subcommittees probing the scandal. For the first time,
he put a price tag on the loss to taxpayers from the fraud and
mismanagement under former HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce: $2
billion. At least half of that appears to have been siphoned
from a six-year-old program in which the Federal Housing
Administration, an arm of HUD, shares the insurance of housing
projects with private companies.

    Kemp tried to avoid direct criticism of his predecessor,
whom he called a decent and honorable man, but nonetheless noted
that HUD is still dealing with more than 1,900 recommendations
from the department's inspector general for tightening lax
procedures, suggestions that had sat on Pierce's desk without
action.

    Pierce's fraying reputation suffered a more serious blow
last week, when one of his former top aides implicated him
directly in the scandal. Though Pierce had told a House
subcommittee last May that he had never been personally involved
in HUD program grants, Shirley McVay Wiseman told the panel that
her boss had directly ordered her to approve $16 million in
federal subsidies for a housing project in Durham, N.C.,
proposed by Pierce's former law partner. She refused, she said,
so Pierce signed the papers.

    While Kemp treated Pierce gently, he scoffed at the claims
of some prominent Republicans that the huge fees they received
from developers for their influence in obtaining HUD contracts
had not hurt taxpayers. The department, he testified, had given
developers "a reason to hire a consultant" and then provided
"the money to pay the consultant's fees." Moreover, he said,
private brokers who handled house sales for HUD and then failed
to turn the money over to the Government were not "Robin
Hood-type heroes . . . robbing the rich. They are stealing from
the taxpayer and depriving low- and moderate-income people of
the opportunity to realize the American dream of home
ownership." He noted that HUD had even let some developers turn
housing projects for retirees into havens for the wealthy. He
cited a Florida project in which two-bedroom apartments rented
for $2,100 a month.

    After releasing a summary of steps he has taken to
straighten out HUD, Kemp announced he would not permit his
department to deal with 54 former senior officials whom Pierce
had exempted from the Ethics in Government Act. The waivers
permitted the officials to take private jobs in which they could
promptly profit from their HUD experience. One had made $1.3
million in two years as a consultant to developers seeking HUD
contracts.

    A top Kemp aide insists that the energetic Secretary is
"holding up great" under the double strain of the cleanup while
seeking to fulfill his own vision of what his department should
accomplish. But with a third congressional inquiry of HUD about
to begin, Kemp's visions are likely to remain on hold. More
Republican political embarrassment also seems inevitable. One
of the House subcommittees said it intends to question Carla
Hills, now the U.S. Trade Representative and a former Secretary
of HUD, about her efforts to help a mortgage company and a
developer get HUD contracts.

    For an ambitious politician, a crisis can also be an
opportunity. Cast in the sympathetic role of a reformer, Kemp
could ride the current wave of unsolicited attention into a
bright political future. Though he has appointed a deputy to
ride herd on the reform effort, it is Kemp who will be judged
by the results. And an image of Mr. Clean -- or even better, Mr.
Cleanup -- would look fine in 1996, if nimble Jack can pull it
off.