President-elect Donald Trump Friday picked former NFL player Scott Turner, who held a key role in his first administration, to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“Scott is an NFL Veteran, who, during my First Term, served as the First Executive Director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council (WHORC), helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities,” Trump said in his announcement.
The efforts, combined with then-HUD Secretary Ben Carson, were maximized through Scott's guidance while overseeing 16 federal agencies, said Trump.
The agencies implemented more than 200 policy actions that furthered the nation's economic development, the president-elect added.
If Turner, 52, is confirmed, he will lead an agency that is tasked with enforcing housing laws, managing programs addressing housing needs, administering rental subsidies for lower-income families, and handling cases of housing discrimination, reports The New York Post.
Turner, if confirmed, is expected to carry out several of Trump's campaign promises, including reversing President Joe Biden's fair housing policies and overhauling national homelessness programs.
Trump's first-administration WHORC initiative was created in 2018 to "encourage public and private investment" in low-income census tracts that had been designated "opportunity zones” by his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Turner became the chairman of the Center for Education Opportunity at America First Policy Institute after Trump lost to Biden in 2020.
He served in the Texas House of Representatives from 2013 to 2017, and before he turned to politics played for nine seasons in the NFL for the then-Washington Redskins (now Commanders), the San Diego Chargers, and the Denver Broncos.
He is a graduate of the University of Illinois and is the founder and CEO of his family's Foundation, Community Engagement and Opportunity Council (CEOC) which works to revitalize U.S. communities through economic opportunity, sports, and mentorship, Trump said in his announcement.
Turner also serves on the board of the American Cornerstone Institute and is an associate pastor of the Prestonwood Baptist Church in Texas. He and his wife Robin are the parents of a son.