Scott Turner is heading to the Senate floor for a full vote on his nomination for secretary of housing and urban development, but he’s only doing it with Republican support.
The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee’s party-line vote to advance Turner on Thursday happened over the protests of Democrats, who requested a delay on the vote until after the committee had a chance to review Turner’s FBI background check. Republicans argued that it was not required and pushed the nomination forward.
“I would think we could have had a broader bipartisan vote out of the committee,” said Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, who said he was first introduced to Turner after his nomination.
Turner, most known for his time in the NFL, is a relatively unknown figure in the housing space, and he did not give detailed plans for the department during his confirmation hearing last week. Turner said he planned to take an inventory of HUD’s programming to “maximize” its current budget.
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Still, Democrats had suggested that they might be open to supporting his nomination. It is unclear whether any Democrats will ultimately support his confirmation in a final vote in the Senate.
“I came here prepared to be able to vote in favor of his nomination, and I appreciated his willingness to respond to my questions,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member on the committee, said on Thursday.
“We are missing one important piece of information for Mr. Turner, and we should not move forward without it. To date, neither you nor I have received Mr. Turner’s FBI background check or had a chance to review it,” Warren said to Sen. Tim Scott, the chair of the committee.
Democrats on the committee all sent a letter to Scott ahead of the hearing asking for the vote to be postponed because “[t]o date, the Committee has yet to be informed that Mr. Turner’s FBI background investigation is complete” and the committee has not received a briefing on his background.
On Thursday morning, they made the case that it is the committee’s responsibility to do due diligence before advancing a nominee for the rest of the Senate’s consideration and that a report has always been available by the time the committee votes to advance the nomination.
In response, Republicans on the Senate committee argued delaying the vote for a background check is unnecessary. Scott said during his time as ranking member last Congress that he “never received information on backgrounds.”
“[It’s] really important to note that this committee does not require an FBI background check,” Scott said. “Our committee does not have rules, nor do we even have a formal process, to receive the background check information by this committee.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, suggested that the vote could move forward and the committee could settle its process later. He noted that Democrats could choose to vote no on a floor vote in this instance.
“I would support a rule going forward that says that we won’t vote out of committee until the FBI report is there,” Tillis said. “And I would encourage the administration to get the FBI report there before final passage.”
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Amelia Benavides-Colón is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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