Senate leaders sound off on Scott Turner’s HUD nomination

Late last week, president-elect Donald Trump announced that he had chosen Scott Turner, the former executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Housing industry reactions were primarily congratulatory for Turner. They included vows from organizations such as the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) and National Housing Conference (NHC) to work with the incoming HUD secretary on important issues facing the U.S. housing system.

But Turner will have to go through the confirmation process in the Senate before he is seated in his new role. In the meantime, two influential lawmakers on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs have weighed in on Turner’s nomination.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the current ranking member of the committee who is likely to become its next chair, lauded Turner’s appointment in a press release from the committee’s minority shortly after the nomination was made public.

“For too many Americans across the country, access to quality, affordable housing is out of reach,” Scott said. “Federal housing policy has failed hardworking Americans for decades, and they deserve a different approach. I look forward to working with Scott Turner to put more Americans on the path towards homeownership and financial opportunity. The Senate Banking Committee will work quickly to consider his nomination.”

After losing the Senate majority in this month’s election, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) — the current committee chair — will no longer be serving in the chamber after having been defeated by his Republican opponent, Bernie Moreno.

But Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), an influential committee member and current chair on the Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, handily won reelection this month. Warren will be participating in Turner’s confirmation hearings and voiced her opinion on his nomination in a social media post this week.

“A good HUD Secretary must be serious about building more housing, taking on predatory corporations, and lowering costs for families,” Warren said in a post on the social media platform X. “If Turner implements Trump’s Project 2025 plans, it’ll be a disaster for first-time home buyers and working people struggling to afford rent.”

Project 2025 refers to a series of proposals published by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think thank, that could reshape many federal agencies and systems to more closely align with conservative ideology. It features a housing section written by Ben Carson, the HUD secretary during Trump’s first term, although Trump and his campaign aimed to distance themselves from the document during the run-up to the election.

But many of Turner’s views of specific housing issues, and the management challenges that would accompany the new HUD leader, are not currently known. Warren said she aims to keep an open mind as Turner moves through the confirmation process.

“I look forward to learning more about Turner’s views on how to address the housing crisis and will review his record with an objective and open mind ahead of his confirmation hearing,” she added.

HousingWire reached out to Warren’s representatives for further comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Warren’s concerns about the housing plans mentioned in Project 2025 have been called into question by supporters of the president-elect due to Trump’s statements that aim to distance himself from the playbook. But Trump also nominated a key architect of the policy playbook — Russell Vought — to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the new term.

Vought previously served in the same role in the final two years of the first Trump administration. But a spokesperson for the transition team reiterated the claim that Trump “never had anything to do with Project 2025,” according to reporting by The Associated Press.

In a social media post directed at the president-elect shortly after his nomination was announced, Turner said he is “thrilled to continue the outstanding work we began in your last administration at HUD with an incredible team. I am deeply humbled by your confidence in my nomination.”

Turner also described Carson as his mentor, saying the former HUD secretary leaves him with “big shoes to fill.”