Charles B Markham

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr. ordered subordinates to override staff objections and approve a North Carolina apartment project being promoted by a former law firm colleague, two former federal officials said Monday. Pierce had testified to Congress on May 25 that he took no such actions.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr. ordered subordinates to override staff objections and approve a North Carolina apartment project being promoted by a former law firm colleague, two former federal officials said Monday. Pierce had testified to Congress on May 25 that he took no such actions.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp pledged here Monday that the widening scandal now plaguing his department will not be "used as an excuse" by the Bush Administration to permanently shut down the department's programs aimed at helping America's poor and homeless. In a sometimes emotional speech to the 80th annual convention of the National Assn.

In his strongest comments yet on the burgeoning scandals in his department, Housing Secretary Jack Kemp on Friday blamed Samuel R. Pierce Jr., his predecessor, for the agency's current troubles and indicated that he might halt additional programs as part of his in-house cleanup.

A former official at the scandal-ridden Department of Housing and Urban Development on Friday challenged sworn testimony of former HUD Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr., saying Pierce once ordered her to approve a $16-million grant for an apartment project of dubious merit. Shirley M. Wiseman, who was acting assistant secretary of housing at the time, said she refused to obey Pierce's direct order to fund the controversial Durham, N.C., project because it had "too many problems."