HomePoliticsElizabeth Warren to Grill Trump Housing Candidate on Rents, Shell Companies

Elizabeth Warren to Grill Trump Housing Candidate on Rents, Shell Companies

Setting rents through computer algorithms and preventing real estate from being used for money laundering through shell companies are two issues likely to be faced by Scott Turner, the former professional football player picked to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. will receive with this committee confirmation. Hear Thursday.

In a lengthy 13-page letter to Turner obtained Sunday by HuffPost, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, laid out several areas she wants to hear more about when Turner appears before her. committee for his confirmation hearing.

In her letter, Warren said there was “little public” about Turner’s positions on housing policy and that Turner should be willing to answer her questions.

Turner played seven seasons in the NFL as a cornerback through the 2003 season after playing collegiately at the University of Illinois. He later served in the Texas State Legislature. While his choice was by the newly elected President Donald Trump reportedly a surprise to many housing expertsIn the first Trump administration, he was executive director of a White House interagency council charged with overseeing Opportunity Zones, areas targeted for economic development through tax breaks.

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In her letter, Warren asked for Turner’s opinion on setting rents, citing the ongoing case against RealPage Inc., a company whose software The Justice Department claims it has been used by landlords to illegally fix rents in violation of antitrust law. RealPage is fighting the case in court.

“Price fixing and other forms of collusion are illegal under antitrust law. However, companies like RealPage would allow landlords to band together to increase rents using pricing algorithms and non-public data. What steps do you think HUD should take to address algorithmic price fixing in the housing market?” Warren asked in the letter.

In another segment, Warren cited praise for Turner from Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who said Turner would monitor investments in U.S. real estate by foreign “hostile actors.”

“Do you agree that it is important to maintain bipartisanship?
The Transparency Act’s beneficial ownership reporting requirements, which Congress concluded were critical to cracking down on malicious actors seeking to conceal their ownership of entities in the United States to pursue illegal activities such as money laundering, facilitate the financing of terrorism, financial fraud, and acts of foreign corruption detrimental to the national security interests of the United States?” Warren asked.

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The Business Transparency Act was passed in 2021 and requires the ownership of shell companies to be disclosed to the government as a way to tackle money laundering, tax fraud and other illegal activities.

The constitutionality of the law has been challenged in federal court and reporting is currently only voluntary after a district court in Texas issued a nationwide injunction.

The law has angered conservatives. In the Finance department of Project 2025, a policy briefing book compiled by the Heritage Foundation As guidance for incoming Trump administration officials, the authors wrote: “Congress should repeal the Corporate Transparency Act, and [the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network] should repeal its poorly written and overly broad beneficial ownership reporting rule.”

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