WASHINGTON — A Senate hearing for the administration's choice to lead the Federal Housing Administration and two other Department of Housing and Urban Development appointees was dominated Thursday by GOP criticism of past statements the nominees made about policing policy.
The Banking Committee met to question National Community Stabilization Trust President Julia Gordon, the nominee for FHA commissioner; acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Dave Uejio, nominated for assistant HUD secretary of fair housing and equal opportunity; and Solomon Greene, the nominee to be HUD’s assistant secretary for policy development and research.
Though the hearing at times touched on affordable housing and other HUD-related issues, much of the discussion focused on tweets, blog posts and letters penned by Gordon and Greene last year that criticized policing practices and their impact on low-income communities.
“I’m troubled that the Biden administration has chosen nominees who have made it clear, through their writings, tweets and retweets that they are hostile to the police, subscribe to the theory that the police are racists and support defunding the police,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the ranking member of the committee. “These statements speak directly to their policy views and temperament and therefore they are extremely relevant to our consideration of their nominations.”
Toomey took particular issue with a letter Gordon wrote last year in her capacity as president of the National Community Stabilization Trust after the police killing of George Floyd, in which she said police violence stemmed “from flawed and biased systems that require structural change.”
Greene, meanwhile, co-wrote a blog post for the Urban Institute in June 2020, which posited that over-policing endangers families of color and suggested that reversing inequality “requires more than recapturing funding from policing.”
All of the committee’s Republicans sent a letter to President Joe Biden Tuesday calling on him to withdraw both Gordon and Greene’s nominations in light of their past statements.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., expressed concern at the hearing that the nominees' stances on policing would cause them to overlook the importance of crime prevention in the housing arena.
“When I hear that trend — no more money for police — I think about the kid I was living in the neighborhoods that I lived in where the police presence was necessary,” he said. “It was essential.”
Even Uejio was similarly scrutinized for remarks he made as acting CFPB director in which he said that there is “latent, structural racism” in the country’s criminal justice system.
But all three nominees told the committee that they did not support defunding the police.
“I have not advocated to defund the police. I support law enforcement," said Gordon. "I have family members in law enforcement. And as previously stated, my husband has worked in the Pentagon for more than three decades.”
Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, along with other Democrats on the committee, defended the nominees, arguing that their past statements demonstrate an understanding of the racial equity issues that they will have to combat at HUD.
“You acknowledged our country's horrible history of slavery and racial discrimination ... and Jim Crow and redlining, and those are relevant issues,” Brown said. “Understanding those issues will make you better nominees and better public servants as you're confirmed.”
Democrats have a majority in the Senate, and Gordon, Greene and Uejio enjoy wide support. In particular, Gordon’s nomination is supported by the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Realtors and even former FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery, who served in the Trump administration.
“Despite some of the rhetoric we’re hearing today, let there be no doubt that these nominees are up to the job they’ve been nominated for,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.
Both Gordon and Greene were repeatedly asked about the housing shortage in the U.S., which has been driving up home prices and shutting lower-income borrowers out of the market. The U.S. housing supply was
Gordon said that if she were confirmed, she would want to “look at how manufactured housing can play more of a role in the solution toolbox” to address the shortage of affordable housing.
Greene added that if confirmed, he would want to address the reasons behind the housing shortage by broadening stakeholder engagement “to really understand what are some of the challenges communities are facing on the ground” as well as to promulgate “more timely and actionable research.”
Meanwhile, Uejio said his top priority as assistant secretary of fair housing and equal opportunity would be to bolster the office’s infrastructure and better convey to people how to file discrimination complaints.
“I've had conversations with folks in rural communities, with folks from tribal nations, and I'm aware that those protections aren't always well-known even by folks on the ground,” he said.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., also asked Gordon about the declining rate of homeownership for Black Americans, noting that the Twin Cities has the highest gap of homeownership between white and Black families in the country.
“This is a huge priority for me. It is essential to address if we want to get at the fundamental inequalities around wealth,” Smith said.
Gordon agreed, and noted the most important thing for FHA to focus on immediately would be to “prevent more families from losing their homes” once the government-mandated mortgage forbearance winds down.
“We know that COVID has impacted communities of color and families of color more than other communities, and these are where people are at risk,” she said. “If FHA can manage through this process and keep people in their homes, we will be at least not losing ground” on closing the racial homeownership gap.
She highlighted, in particular, the importance of mortgage servicers.
“The role that the mortgage servicers have to play in keeping people in their homes cannot be overstated, and these are relationships that I've built for years,” she said. “I understand mortgage servicing deeply, and I believe I can help manage through this crisis so that no family loses their home unnecessarily.”
