The Senate Banking Committee formally rolled Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) nominee Scott Turner out of committee, setting him up for confirmation by the full Senate.
The committee advanced the nominee of President Donald Trump in a 13-11 panel vote. Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) said in his opening statement that “President Trump made a promise to the American people to usher in a new golden era of peace and prosperity,” and that it “starts with making America’s economy work for everyday Americans.”
“It’s time for a blue-collar comeback. And the man who will be leading that comeback at the Department of Housing and Urban Development is Scott Turner, someone with a remarkable life story and the skillset necessary to enact change,” he said, listing the failures of HUD throughout the Biden administration, beginning with soaring spending.
“Even according to their own surveys, homelessness in the last 12 months is up 18 percent. Since 2020, up 33 percent. And we as a committee, in a bipartisan fashion, can work with HUD to tackle some of these lingering, stubborn problems facing millions of Americans today. It’s our opportunity,” he said, noting that housing prices “have soared by 150 percent, rent up over 20 percent” since Biden took office four years ago.
“Scott Turner won’t just focus on fixing what’s broken; I know he will work hard to find innovative solutions and I look forward to working with him on my ROAD to Housing legislation and Opportunity Zones,” he added.
During his confirmation hearing, Turner — an former NFL athlete and lawmaker in Texas — made it clear that HUD has been “failing at its most basic mission.”
As Breitbart News reported:
I worked as a dishwasher at Spring Creek Barbeque, which is one of my claims to fame. Early on in my childhood, my family was broken due to divorce and later moving into a blended family. I love my mother, I love my father and all my brothers and sisters. But when you go through a divorce, many would say the odds are now stacked against you,” he said, telling lawmakers that he personally overcame “extreme adversity going against the status quo in attending and graduating college.
“In spite of being drafted in the seventh round of the NFL, which is the last round for those that don’t know, I was blessed to go on to have a successful career in the National Football League. I went on to serve in the Texas legislature, which was a great honor for me, and work in the White House to advance the Opportunity Zone Initiative, and I sit before you today, committee members, humbled by the call to serve my country as a member of President Trump’s Cabinet,” he continued, acknowledging the countless Americans who have also overcome adversity in their lives.
“I share my story because I think it’s important for you to know my heart of who I am, and also because the challenges that HUD faces are vital to our nation as well as personal to me. These are not just things that I heard about or read about. These are things that my family and I have experienced through the years, and I believe that that perspective would be very beneficial to HUD as I become the leader, if confirmed by this committee,” he said, identifying HUD’s mission as creating “strong and sustainable communities and support quality affordable housing serving the most vulnerable of our nation.”
HUD, he continued, is “failing at its most basic mission, and that has to come to an end the point in time.”
Former Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), now Secretary of State, formally became the first member of Trump’s Cabinet after a 99-0 vote on Monday.
