Scrutiny for HUD Secretary Ben Carson's Schedule

"Ben Carson's daily schedule from 2017 shows a HUD secretary who held senior staff meetings once a week, lunched with the author of "Chicken Soup for the Soul" and the founder of My Pillow, and left work before 2 p.m. on some Fridays to fly to his Florida mansion," reports Laura Strickler.

"A list of appointments for a 31-week period shows that for about half of the Fridays Carson worked a traditional eight or nine-hour day. For five of the Fridays he was off or had no appointments. For five more Fridays he left before 2 p.m. to get to the airport to fly to South Florida, where he owns a house valued at $4.3 million. For the remaining six, he had no scheduled appointments past 3 p.m. In all, he made a dozen weekend trips to South Florida during the 31 weeks," adds Strickler.

"The calendar also indicates that in 2017, HUD's senior staff huddled just once a week." Other cabinet members were meeting with senior staff once a week during the same time frame, according to Strickler.

This isn't the first time Secretary Carson has faced scrutiny for his management of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Reportedly, morale at HUD is low, and Carson's will to lead has been questioned. Carson got into a public relations snafu when it was revealed he spent $31,000 to remodel his office. This year, Carson requested an 18% reduction in funding for HUD in President Trump's budget proposal. Meanwhile, Carson's signature program, EnVision, has achieved very little progress of significance after launching last summer.