Carson Weathers Nomination Hearing
President-Elect Trump’s nominee for HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, told members of the Senate Banking Committee that his background growing up in poverty and his experiences as a physician give him a unique perspective in running the government’s housing authority.
“We must revisit the ways we do things in order to give people an opportunity to climb the economic and social ladder,” Carson said in testimony (http://www.banking.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/5ffd97b5-7b90-4aba-8a16-eea17453ad2b/FFF8A9BA19A7D58139D031004A9D0F22.011217-carson-testimony-revised.pdf). “Right now, social mobility has become stagnant. However, if we think holistically about this–we will know that it’s more than just housing. We must include the areas of healthcare, education, jobs and the skills to do them, in addition to transportation, as we develop the best approach. In order to provide access to quality housing for the elderly, disabled, and low-income we need to work across silos and I intend to do that at HUD, should you confirm me. I want to make America’s neighborhoods stronger and more inclusive.”
Carson, 65, is best known for his presidential run during the 2016 campaign; before that, he was a renowned neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he gained fame for his work separating conjoined twins. Carson dropped out of the Republican presidential race last March, throwing his support behind eventual nominee and president-elect Donald Trump. In December, Trump nominated Carson as HUD secretary.
Carson faced questioning largely along party lines, with Republicans largely praising him and Democrats pressing him on a number of housing and political issues. The biggest fireworks occurred between Carson and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who questioned Carson on what steps he would do to prevent HUD monies from benefitting members of the Trump Administration, including President-Elect Trump. Carson said his actions would be “driven by a sense of morals and values,” and that he would “absolutely not play favorites for anyone.”
The Committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Trump’s campaign promise to cut government spending 10 percent across the board “would send hundreds of thousands of families into a tailspin.” He questioned Carson over a 2015 Washington Times opinion piece in which Carson criticized the Fair Housing Act. Carson insisted that the article had been “distorted” in media coverage and that the issue focused on high-level bureaucratic interference in local issues.
“That act says that we want people who are receiving HUD grants to look around and see if they find anything that looks like discrimination and then we want them to come up with a solution,” Carson said. “They’re saying go and look for a problem and give us a solution. “We have people sitting around desks in Washington, deciding on how things should be done. I don’t have any problem with affirmative action or integration, I have no problem with that at all. But I do have a problem with people on high dictating it when they have no idea what’s going on in an area.”
Carson said he said HUD is positioned “as part of the solution, helping ensure housing security and strong communities. HUD has several different ways it helps people, through insuring financing for that first home to helping those in poverty, which has been an intractable problem for decades. The U.S. has 25 percent of the world’s inmates, 72 percent of black babies are born out of wedlock, and one in every five children in the U.S. lives in poverty. Those are daunting numbers, and in the United States of America, it’s a tragedy. We can do better.”
In his written testimony, Carson said he would support Trump’s efforts toward deregulation. “That applies to housing as well. Overly burdensome housing regulations are bad for everyone and are increasing income inequality.”
Carson cited “complex webs of covenants and zoning ordinances across U.S. cities–in particular for low-density development–superimposed on already highly-segregated neighborhoods, have slowed integration. When there are wide economic gaps by race, as we have in the U.S., exclusionary land-use policies based on families’ economic circumstances entrench racial segregation.”
Regulations also are costly, Carson added. “We need to shore up our nation’s housing finance sector, and HUD plays a crucial role in the housing finance system through FHA and Ginnie Mae–helping borrowers with less than perfect credit or first-time homeowners get their toe in the door of a home they can call their own,” he said. “But credit to purchase a house has been constricted since the 2008 crash and many younger households have been held back from buying that first home. With the Fed raising rates recently, mortgages are likely to get more expensive.”
Ahead of the meeting, the Mortgage Bankers Association sent a letter to committee members in support of Carson’s nomination. MBA President and CEO David Stevens, CMB, urged the Committee to forward Carson’s nomination to the full Senate.
“HUD can benefit from a fresh perspective to address these critical issues. Dr. Carson has demonstrated throughout his career that he possesses the intellect to understand and respond to complex challenges,” Stevens wrote. “We believe he will put those talents to good use, helping strengthen America’s housing market, promoting the production of affordable rental housing and improving communities nationwide.”
The Banking Commitee is expected to hold a vote later this month; with a Republican majority on the Commitee (12-11), the vote to forward Carson’s nomination to the full Senate floor will likely fall along party lines.
