Scott Turner’s confirmation hearing on Thursday was the first real opportunity for senators to get a sense of his plans to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
But Turner largely avoided committing to specific policies, focusing instead on sweeping goals of streamlining HUD’s funding and eliminating “ineffective” programs.
“What I do support is maximizing the budget and making sure that programs that we do have are meeting the intended needs,” Turner said, adding that he did not believe that was currently happening.
Turner, best known for his time as an NFL player, led the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Donald Trump’s first administration and served in the Texas state House. He also serves as chair of the Center for Education Opportunity at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. But unlike other Trump cabinet picks, he has not received much national attention and has been a mystery to many housing policy experts and Democrats.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, focused on Turner’s “limited public record” in her opening statement and encouraged him to lay out the “nuts and bolts” of his plans for HUD.
Turner agreed with nearly all committee members on the need for more affordable housing. But he did not outline detailed plans on how he would accomplish creating more. He did not commit to advocating for increased funding to affordable housing programs, indicated that he believed the federal government should play a smaller role in the housing market and did not commit to preserving federal funding toward mixed-immigration-status households.
Republican senators were very receptive to Turner, with Sen. John Cornyn introducing him and committing to confirming him.
Turner aligned himself with Trump’s agenda, and repeated throughout his confirmation hearing that he needed to take “inventory” of what programs were and were not working.
“At this moment, we’re not just talking about fixing what’s broken, but about continuing and expanding the policies of the first Trump administration. I’m talking about the ‘America First’ policies that work for the American people,” Turner said.
Sen. Andy Kim pushed Turner for “a more granular” plan to give more people the opportunity to own a home.
“We have to get our fiscal house in this country in order to bring down inflation, bringing down interest rates, because that will then bring down the cost to build affordable housing,” Turner responded. “I think that when we do that, and prices do come down and housing is built, those that are in this younger generation will begin to have hope again.”
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Amelia Benavides-Colón is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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