HUD Announces Senate Confirmation of Senior Leaders

For these HUD jobs, the President formally nominates each person, the Senate refers the nomination to the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee for a hearing and vote, and then the full Senate votes to confirm or reject. All of these are “PAS” (Presidential Appointment with Senate confirmation) positions under the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.

Rough timelines for this cohort (from formal nomination filing at the Senate to final confirmation vote):

• Craig Trainor (Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity/FHEO): nominated Feb. 11, 2025; confirmed Oct. 7–8, 2025 – about 8 months.
• Benjamin DeMarzo (Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations/CIR): nominated Feb. 3, 2025; confirmed Sept. 2025 – about 7 months.
• David Woll (HUD General Counsel/OGC): nominated Mar. 10, 2025; confirmed Aug. 1, 2025 – about 5 months.
• Benjamin Hobbs (Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing/PIH): nominated May 6, 2025; Banking Committee hearing in early September 2025; confirmed Dec. 18–19, 2025 – roughly 7 months.
• Ronald (Ronnie) Kurtz (Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development/CPD): nominated May 6, 2025; Banking Committee hearing in late August/early September 2025; confirmed Dec. 18–19, 2025 – roughly 7 months.
• Joseph Gormley (President of Ginnie Mae): nomination sent to the Senate and referred to Banking in early August 2025; confirmed by the Senate in mid‑December 2025 – a little over 4 months.
• Frank Cassidy (Assistant Secretary for Housing and FHA Commissioner): nominated in early August 2025; confirmed mid‑December 2025 – about 4 months.

So, in practice these confirmations typically took about 4–8 months from formal nomination to final Senate vote.

These HUD components each oversee a different part of the federal housing system:

• FHA (Federal Housing Administration) – Part of HUD’s Office of Housing. It does not lend money directly; instead it insures mortgages made by approved lenders for single‑family homes, multifamily rental housing, manufactured housing, and healthcare facilities. By guaranteeing these loans, FHA reduces lenders’ risk and helps more households and projects qualify for financing.

• Ginnie Mae (Government National Mortgage Association) – A government‑owned corporation inside HUD that guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on mortgage‑backed securities (MBS) backed by federally insured or guaranteed loans (such as FHA, VA, and USDA loans). Its mission is to link U.S. housing to global capital markets and provide low‑cost financing for federal housing programs.

• PIH (Office of Public and Indian Housing) – Runs HUD’s Public Housing, Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8), and Native American housing programs. Its mission is to ensure safe, decent, affordable housing and promote self‑sufficiency for low‑income families, seniors, people with disabilities, and Native American communities.

• CPD (Office of Community Planning and Development) – Administers formula and competitive grants such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME, homelessness assistance (Continuum of Care and ESG), and disaster recovery funds. It helps communities address homelessness, rebuild after disasters, and support affordable housing and local economic development.

• FHEO (Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity) – Enforces federal fair housing and civil‑rights laws. It investigates housing discrimination complaints, conducts compliance reviews, and issues policies to ensure equal access to housing regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or family status.

Scott Turner is the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He was confirmed by the Senate on February 5, 2025, to serve as the 19th HUD Secretary.

As HUD Secretary, he:

• Heads the entire Department of Housing and Urban Development and manages its budget and staff.
• Is a member of the President’s Cabinet and the President’s chief advisor on housing and urban‑development policy.
• Has nearly all of HUD’s legal powers and functions vested in his office by statute, including issuing regulations, administering HUD programs (like FHA, Ginnie Mae oversight, public housing, vouchers, community‑development grants), and enforcing fair‑housing and related laws, subject to limits set by Congress and the courts.

In this press release, he is the “Secretary Turner” quoted as leading HUD’s agenda and overseeing these newly confirmed senior officials.

The “$1.9 trillion portfolio” refers to the total unpaid principal balance of all mortgages that FHA currently insures across its programs (single‑family homes, multifamily rental properties, and healthcare facilities).

What is included:

• Millions of FHA‑insured single‑family home mortgages.
• FHA‑insured multifamily rental housing loans.
• FHA‑insured loans on hospitals and certain healthcare facilities.

Why it matters:

• Scale and systemic importance: At roughly $2 trillion, FHA is one of the world’s largest mortgage insurers; its credit guarantees are a major part of the U.S. housing finance system.
• Access and affordability: Because lenders are protected against losses on this portfolio, they are more willing to lend to first‑time buyers, lower‑wealth households, and affordable‑housing projects that might not qualify for conventional credit.
• Financial risk to the government: If many borrowers default, FHA’s insurance fund must cover claims. Managing this $1.9 trillion insured portfolio safely is a core responsibility of the FHA Commissioner.

Ginnie Mae (the Government National Mortgage Association) is a government‑owned corporation within HUD. It does not make loans or buy mortgages. Instead, it guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on mortgage‑backed securities (MBS) that are backed by federally insured or guaranteed mortgages (such as FHA, VA, and USDA loans).

Connection to global capital markets:

• Lenders pool federally backed mortgages and issue Ginnie Mae–guaranteed MBS.
• Investors worldwide buy these MBS, confident they will receive payments on time because they carry Ginnie Mae’s full faith and credit guarantee of the U.S. government.
• This global investor demand brings large amounts of private and international capital into U.S. housing.
• The lower funding costs are passed through as lower interest rates on FHA/VA/USDA loans, reducing borrowing costs for households and affordable‑housing projects.

That is what the article means when it says Ginnie Mae “connect[s] the U.S. housing market with global capital markets” to provide low‑cost financing for federal housing programs.

In the press release, Assistant Secretary Craig Trainor says he will “enforce the Fair Housing Act according to its statutory text” and “end the weaponization of the Fair Housing Act, which the Obama and Biden administrations used to advance a deeply misguided vision that discouraged residential development and allowed faceless bureaucrats to socially engineer American neighborhoods.”

In plain terms, by “weaponization of the Fair Housing Act” he is alleging that prior administrations:

• Interpreted and used the Fair Housing Act more broadly than the statute’s words allow, especially through “affirmatively furthering fair housing” (AFFH) rules and disparate‑impact policies.
• Used HUD’s funding and enforcement tools to push local governments toward specific zoning, planning, or integration outcomes that he views as “social engineering.”

Changes he is signaling:

• Narrower, more literal reading of the Fair Housing Act’s text focused on traditional anti‑discrimination enforcement (e.g., intentional unequal treatment in renting, selling, or lending).
• Rolling back or significantly revising Obama‑ and Biden‑era AFFH regulations and guidance that required jurisdictions to analyze and address segregation and barriers to fair housing as a condition of receiving HUD funds.
• Reducing HUD’s role in pushing local land‑use or zoning reforms through fair‑housing conditions, and emphasizing investigation of clearly “unlawful discrimination” instead.

These comments parallel long‑running conservative critiques of the AFFH framework and disparate‑impact enforcement under the Fair Housing Act.

The confirmations mainly matter because they put politically aligned, Senate‑confirmed leaders in charge of the key offices that run public housing, vouchers, and community‑development grants.

From the officials’ own statements and their recent histories, likely directional changes include:

Public Housing and Housing Choice Vouchers (PIH – Assistant Secretary Hobbs)

• Shifting away from the traditional public‑housing model: Hobbs explicitly calls public housing a “failed Public Housing platform” and says PIH will “transition away” from it and “hold Public Housing Authorities accountable,” suggesting: • More emphasis on vouchers and tenant‑based assistance instead of maintaining or expanding conventional public‑housing projects. • Tighter oversight and possible sanctions or restructurings for troubled housing authorities.
• Deregulation: Hobbs pledges to “remove overly burdensome regulations,” which could mean loosening rules on housing authorities and landlords to encourage participation in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, potentially at some cost to tenant protections or oversight depending on how it is implemented.
• “Economic self‑sufficiency”: Greater focus on work requirements, time limits, or other self‑sufficiency initiatives for voucher and public‑housing residents, echoing earlier Trump‑era priorities.

Community‑development and homelessness programs (CPD – Assistant Secretary Kurtz)

• Stronger alignment of CPD grants (like CDBG, HOME, homelessness and disaster‑recovery funds) with the administration’s priorities; Kurtz speaks of “advanc[ing their] agenda” through CPD.
• Potential reprioritization within homelessness and community‑development programs—for example: • Emphasis on visible public‑order and emergency‑shelter responses over permanent supportive housing, mirroring prior Trump‑era debates, or • Tighter conditions on how cities use federal funds, linked to federal views on crime, encampments, or local regulation.

Fair housing and civil‑rights enforcement (FHEO – Assistant Secretary Trainor)

• Narrower scope of enforcement: Trainor says he will enforce the Act “according to its statutory text” and “end the weaponization of the Fair Housing Act,” signaling: • Less aggressive use of disparate‑impact theory and AFFH obligations to challenge local zoning and segregation. • Greater focus on clear, intentional discrimination cases.
• This may affect how strongly HUD uses fair‑housing leverage to push localities on siting of affordable housing, voucher acceptance, and integration efforts.

Cross‑cutting effects from FHA, Ginnie Mae, CIR, and OGC

• FHA and Ginnie Mae leadership (Cassidy and Gormley) emphasize “modernizing FHA,” “strengthening partnerships with the private sector,” and expanding access to homeownership; that can indirectly affect voucher and public‑housing residents by shaping affordable‑ownership and rental finance.
• CIR (DeMarzo) will work with Congress and state and local governments to advance the administration’s “affordability agenda,” likely pushing legislative and regulatory changes consistent with deregulation and increased private‑sector role.
• OGC (Woll) provides the legal backing for these policy shifts, including any rewrites of PIH, CPD, or fair‑housing regulations.

In sum, these confirmations are likely to move HUD toward: more reliance on vouchers and private markets, more deregulation and “self‑sufficiency” framing in assisted housing, tighter oversight of public‑housing authorities, and a narrower approach to fair‑housing enforcement and federal influence over local land‑use and integration policies.

Several of the confirmed officials were already serving in acting or senior HUD roles, or held senior posts in the first Trump administration, before this round of confirmations:

Already at HUD / Acting or senior roles

• Frank Cassidy (Assistant Secretary for Housing and FHA Commissioner) – Previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing and FHA, and had been acting in the Commissioner role.
• Joseph Gormley (President of Ginnie Mae) – Served as Ginnie Mae’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer before confirmation.
• Benjamin Hobbs (Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing) – Returned to HUD in February 2025 as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for PIH; also served as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and as a senior policy advisor at HUD during the first Trump administration.
• Ronald (Ronnie) Kurtz (Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development) – Joined HUD and was nominated from a prior planning/development leadership role; his confirmation fills the Senate‑confirmed CPD post.
• Craig Trainor (Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity) – Previously Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education and took office as Assistant Secretary for FHEO after being nominated early in the administration; his confirmation in October 2025 formalized a role he had already been performing in practice.
• Benjamin DeMarzo (Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations) – Held multiple senior HUD leadership jobs in the first Trump administration, notably Assistant Deputy Secretary for Field Policy and Management, before being brought back and then confirmed to lead CIR.
• David Woll (General Counsel) – Long‑time HUD lawyer and leader; previously Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development and a senior official in the first Trump administration, then returned and was confirmed as HUD General Counsel.

All of them, in short, either had been serving in de facto leadership roles at HUD or had senior HUD/Trump‑administration experience prior to their 2025 Senate confirmations.