The Senate confirmed Scott Turner as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Wednesday in a bipartisan vote.
Turner, a former NFL athlete and lawmaker in Texas, is President Donald Trump’s twelfth nominee to receive Senate confirmation.
He will be the 19th secretary of HUD, which was created during Lyndon Johnson’s presidency.
Turner was confirmed by a vote of 55 to 44, with all Republicans and Democrat Sens. John Fetterman (PA) and Peter Welch (VT) voting in favor.
The Senate Banking Committee referred Turner to the Senate in a 13 to 11 vote on January 23.
“It’s time for a blue-collar comeback,” Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) said during Turner’s confirmation hearing, “and the man who will be leading that comeback at the Department of Housing and Urban Development is Scott Turner, someone with a remarkable life story and the skill set necessary to enact change.”
Turner, who grew up in a blended family after his parents divorced, has said HUD has been “failing at its most basic mission, and that has to come to an end.”
As Breitbart reported, Turner in his opening statement before the Banking Committee said:
The challenges that HUD faces are vital to our nation as well as personal to me. These are not just things that I heard about or read about. These are things that my family and I have experienced through the years, and I believe that that perspective would be very beneficial to HUD as I become the leader, if confirmed by this committee.
Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is continuing a blistering pace of confirming Trump’s nominees despite Democrats using procedural maneuvers to delay proceedings.
“According to CNN, President Trump is getting more cabinet picks confirmed so far than the average president in the modern era – another success story,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday, “and we believe it’s critical that Republicans in the Senate majority stay tough and keep their foot on the gas to confirm all of the remaining nominees as quickly as possible so we can continue President Trump’s important work here at the White House and across our entire federal government.”
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
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