January 16, 2025

At First Hearing as Ranking Member, Warren Highlights Banking Priorities, Presses Turner on Plans to Solve Housing Crisis

Opening Remarks (YouTube) | Hearing Livestream 

Washington, D.C. – At her first hearing as Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (BHUA), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) delivered opening remarks on the nomination of Mr. Eric Scott Turner for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, highlighting her priorities as Ranking Member and pressing Turner on his plans to solve the housing crisis. 

Transcript: Confirmation Hearing on the Nomination of Mr. Eric Scott Turner, to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
January 16, 2025

As Delivered

Senator Elizabeth Warren: Mr. Chairman, 

Today is our first hearing together as Committee Chair and Ranking Member. I want to offer my congratulations to you, Mr. Chairman. While I don’t want to paper over our differences, I want to assure you—and every member here—that I will work with you to advance our shared interests.

I also want to say welcome to eight new members on this committee. Have you checked? Is that a record?

Chair Scott: It should be. 

Sen. Warren: It should be. I think this is exciting.

We can find some common ground. As Ranking Member, my focus will be the same as all Democrats: We will work to unrig the economy and make life affordable for working families. 

There are three critical areas where we should focus. 

First, we must make sure the financial system works for all Americans. Preventing “too big to fail” banks from loading up on risks and growing even bigger. Protecting community banks. And making our financial regulations simpler and stronger. 

I support action here. But not all action is good action. I will fight tooth and nail against attempts to make it easier for Wall Street to rip off consumers or crash our economic system. 

We all remember what happened under the first Trump administration. Congress and the President weakened the financial rules on big banks. The nation’s financial regulators took the hint and went to sleep. Executives got greedy, and—no surprise—a few years later, in 2023, we had the second, third, and fourth largest bank failures in our nation’s history. Those mistakes cannot be repeated.

Second, we must advance the nation’s economic and national security. We must use export controls, trade policies, sanctions, and other levers to support economic security at home and promote our values abroad. We must protect our financial system from being exploited by criminals, rogue states, and terrorists. And we must grow American industry, invest in critical infrastructure, and build resilient supply chains at home.  

And third, we must focus on lowering costs for working families. The Committee must hold giant corporations accountable when they gouge families. We should partner with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other law enforcement agencies to continue the fight against junk fees and anticompetitive pricing. 

We also must work to fix our housing system. All across this country, housing costs too much. This is Econ 101: supply and demand. We are not building enough housing. We need more housing everywhere, for everyone: big cities, small towns, first-time homebuyers, renters, seniors, veterans, students, and people with disabilities. Everyone, everywhere.

To do that, we need to make some big changes and really move the needle. The federal government needs to be a good partner, investing in affordable housing and spurring local innovation to cut red tape.

And we can—and should—do even more. It’s time to crack down on corporate landlords that engage in illegal price fixing to drive up rents. To stop private equity firms from squeezing families and buying huge swaths of housing, they turn into overpriced rentals. 

Solving the housing crisis will require an all-hands-on-deck effort. And that brings us to today’s hearing on the nomination of Scott Turner to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. 

Welcome, Mr. Turner. It is good to have you here. Congratulations on your nomination. If you are confirmed, you will lead our nation's response to the housing crisis. I have appreciated our conversations so far.

If you are confirmed, I will work with you however I can, but we face an enormous task to reduce the cost of housing. Our work is urgently important for tens of millions of American families.

You have a limited public record. The American people need to hear details about your plans to make housing affordable. 

They need to hear your plans for building the millions of homes that America needs. 

They need to hear how you will support renters and make sure that seniors and families that can’t afford rent will receive the assistance they need. 

They need to hear your plans to help the 800,000 Americans experiencing homelessness.  

They need to hear your plans to enforce the nation’s fair housing laws.  

They need to hear how you will crack down on greedy corporate landlords and manage an agency that provides critical support for homeowners, renters, and communities across the country.  

This hearing is an opportunity for you to lay out your plans. I have sent you a 13-page letter of 75 questions earlier this week. As you know, I take this seriously. I trust you will give me answers to those detailed questions before we vote on your nomination. General principles are not enough. We are all in the same place on general principles. It will be the nuts and bolts and telling the American people how we will make change happen.

Mr. Turner, I’m looking forward to your testimony today, and I hope you will give the American people a clear sense of your plans to run HUD.

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