Senate Banking approves Turner for HUD along party lines

Mark Schoeff Jr., CQ-Roll Call on Jan 23, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee voted Thursday along party lines, 13-11, to advance the nomination of Scott Turner to be secretary of Housing and Urban Development, as Democrats and Republicans split over procedural, rather than substantive, issues.

Ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged the committee to postpone the vote until it receives the FBI background check on Turner, a former NFL player who was head of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council in the first Trump administration.

“There is no reason to anticipate a problem, but it would be irresponsible for this committee to vote on a Cabinet nominee without his background check, and it would not be consistent with committee precedent,” Warren said.

Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., said the committee doesn’t require background checks. He said he never received FBI information when he was ranking member of the committee in the previous Congress. The information was provided only to the chair and vice chair of the committee.

Scott said other Senate committees with Democratic support have approved nominees, such as Chris Wright for secretary of Energy and Doug Burgum for secretary of Interior, without having the FBI background checks in hand.

“If we want to, in the 120th Congress, change the rules so that they’re consistently applied to all noms coming through the committee, we should do so,” Scott said. “I want to make sure that it’s clear that we have not had a consistent application of any rules because our committee does not have rules nor do we even have a formal process to receive background-check information.”

Warren said her objection to proceeding on the vote was not a stalling tactic.

“We’re not trying to delay the vote by a single minute,” she said.

Although she said she has concerns about Turner, she also said she was encouraged by his acknowledgment of a housing shortage and his commitment to work together to address it.

“I came here prepared to be able to vote in favor of his nomination,” Warren said. “But…we are missing one important piece of information for Mr. Turner, and we should not move forward without it.”

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., also said he was “wide open to support” Turner but also wanted the committee to receive his FBI background check first.

“I think we’re going to miss an opportunity to frankly have a broad bipartisan vote of support for Mr. Turner by rushing this out of the committee,” Warner said.

Turner stressed his difficult childhood in a broken family at his Jan. 16 hearing and said it gave him a perspective that would help him be an effective HUD leader.

Scott said Turner, a former Texas state legislator and currently an official at a multifamily home builder, has the background and ability to address a national housing crisis.

“He is the solution we have been looking for to usher in the golden age of homeownership,” Scott said.