Alphonso Jackson Resigns as Head of HUD

President Bush's HUD Secretary, Alphonso Jackson, handed in his resignation on Monday, March 31, 2008. A long-time Bush crony and supporter, Jackson served as President of American Electric Power - Texas, and CEO of the Housing Authority of Dallas, Texas, before coming on board in June 2001, as HUD's Deputy Secretary and COO. In 2004, Jackson was appointed HUD Secretary. In his resignation announcement, Jackson noted, "There comes a time when one must attend more diligently to personal and family matters." He failed to mention that his resignation follows almost two years of investigation into possible criminal and unethical activities committed by him during his tenure as HUD Secretary.

Jackson was touted by Bush as someone thoroughly qualified to pursue HUD's mission of 'providing affordable housing and promoting economic development" (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Homes and Community, 2004, www.hud.gov). In fact, under Jackson's guidance, and with the complicity of Congress and the White House, there has been 'no recognition that affordable rental housing is critical to meeting America's housing needs, and . . . it is disappearing faster than it is being replaced, even as the need increases" (Andre Shashaty, www.housingfinance.com, December 2007). Added to the subprime mortgage debacle that now threatens the entire economy, one would be hard pressed to credit Jackson with guiding HUD with a firm and equitable hand.

So what has Jackson been doing? At the very least, creating the perception that applicants for HUD contracts will be denied if the applicant does not support George Bush. Jackson himself told a public forum in Dallas that he had "killed a contract award to a firm after its chief told Jackson he disliked Bush" (Washington Post, 9/22/2006). He later claimed he lied when he made that statement, but lie or no, the obvious intent was to put his audience on notice that HUD contracts would not go to those who did not support Bush, according to a report by the Criminal Investigations Division of the HUD Inspector General's office, in April 2006. Other allegations under investigation are no-bid contracts awarded at Jackson's behest to William Hairston, a South Carolina contractor awarded $450,000 for 18 month's work, as well as 29 firms awarded HUD contracts whose key employees made contributions to Republican candidates in an amount in excess of $100,000 (Inspector General's Report, April 2006).

Awarding contracts to Republican supporters is nothing new for the Bush Administration. Key members of the administration as well as cabinet members have strong ties to corporate America, including Vice President Cheney (Haliburton), Donald Rumsfeld (General Instrument Corp., G.D. Searle & Co., Asea Brown Boveri, the Rand Corporation, and Solomon Smith Barney), Elaine Chao, Labor Secretary (Bank of America, Northwest Airlines, Dole Food, Clorox, Columbia/HCA Health Care), Norman Mineta, Transportation Secretary (Lockheed Martin, American Trucking Association, Boeing, General Electric, Greyhound, Northwest Airlines, UPS, and United Airlines), Gale Norton, Interior Secretary (Mountain States Legal Foundation, an anti-environmental group funded by oil companies, property rights groups funded by Boise Cascade, chairwoman of the Republican Environmental Advocates funded by the American Forest Paper Association, Amoco, ARCO) . . . . the list goes on and on for each and every cabinet member appointed during Bush's administrations (A Cabinet That Looks Like Corporate America, Boulder Daily Camera, 2/9/2001).

In and of itself, there is nothing wrong or illegal about having former connections to corporate America. However, when time after time decisions are made favoring the corporations at the expense of the public welfare, one must begin to question whose interests these public servants have taken an oath to uphold when they were sworn into office. In the case of Alphonso Jackson, it seems clear that, much like his former colleague Alberto Gonzalez, his oath of allegiance is to George Bush and not the public he is sworn to protect.