Word: kemp
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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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...
...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...
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...
...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...