President Bush has tapped the head of the Small Business Administration, Steve Preston, to replace embattled Housing and Urban Development secretary Alphonso Jackson.
Jackson announced recently that he was stepping down to take care of personal and family matters but did not elaborate. He is under criminal investigation for allegedly favoring a friend with a contract and interfering in a land deal in Philadelphia. Jackson has also been criticized for not doing enough to respond to the worsening mortgage and credit crisis. The White House called Preston "a strong executive with an outstanding track record in the private sector and at SBA."
It credited him with having a "deep financial and capital markets background" and an understanding of the housing market’s place in the broader economy. It also called him a "reformer."
The White House said that at SBA, Preston managed loan guarantee programs similar in structure to those run by HUD and made them more effective, that he streamlined the agency’s efforts to disburse loans to small businesses after Hurricane Katrina.
