Senate confirms former NFL participant Scott Turner as head of Housing and City Improvement
Former NFL participant Scott Turner was confirmed by the Senate Wednesday as President Trump’s head of the Division of Housing and City Improvement (HUD).
The higher chamber voted 55-44 to approve the previous Washington Redskins and San Diego Chargers cornerback-turned-Dallas housing developer to Trump’s cupboard after he handed a committee vote alongside occasion strains final month.
Two Democrats, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Peter Welch of Vermont, voted to verify Turner together with all 53 Senate Republicans. One Democrat, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, didn’t vote.
Turner will now oversee HUD’s $70 billion finances to implement housing legal guidelines, handle applications to deal with housing wants, administer rental subsidies to lower-income households and deal with housing discrimination instances.
In his announcement of the nom, Trump vowed Turner can be “serving to to steer an Unprecedented Effort that Remodeled our Nation’s most distressed communities.”
“Fixing the issues earlier than our nation requires grit and dedication — whether or not as a younger man, working as a dishwasher on the Spring Creek Barbeque [in Richardson, Texas] or the person who constructed a profitable NFL profession — Scott by no means let his circumstances outline his functionality to succeed,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) mentioned final month.
Turner, who beforehand served on the Trump White Home’s Alternative and Revitalization Council from 2019 to 2021, will take cost of HUD amid a housing disaster that had been exacerbated by cumulative inflation through the Biden administration.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic particularly, rates of interest, mortgages and residential costs have all surged.
Throughout Turner’s affirmation listening to, Scott identified that homelessness within the US had risen by a minimum of 18% since 2020 and housing costs skyrocketed by 150% over the identical interval.
“Regardless of all of the subsidies — and all the trillions of {dollars} spent — not a lot has modified,” the Banking chairman mentioned.
Trump, 78, had typically blamed rising residence costs on the inflow of unlawful migrants into the US, whereas his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, had claimed shortages had been brought on by “company landlords” shopping for up properties and mountain climbing costs.
The as soon as and future president had additionally promised to “get rid of laws that drive up housing prices with the objective of chopping the price of a brand new residence in half.”
“We predict we are able to try this. The laws alone price 30%. Regulation prices 30% of a brand new residence,” Trump mentioned final September in an deal with to the Financial Membership of New York.
Harris had known as for tax incentives and $25,000 handouts to first-time householders.
Turner promised in his affirmation listening to to slash laws, drive down housing prices and cut back homelessness.
“There are numerous components to why housing is so costly now, and I imagine first we now have to get our fiscal home so as,” he informed members of the Banking panel, suggesting that runaway federal spending had worsened the disaster.
He additionally mentioned he would urge officers at HUD to lean on localities to re-evaluate zoning legal guidelines to make it simpler for residence builders.
Previous to becoming a member of the primary Trump administration, Turner served within the Texas state legislature for 4 years, from 2013 to 2017. He retired from professional soccer in 2004 after struggling a leg damage in preseason coaching camp with the Denver Broncos.
