Key moments from Senate hearing on Ben Carson

The Senate Banking Committee gave a friendly welcome to Dr. Ben Carson, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to run HUD. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who challenged Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, has no experience in housing policy but won plaudits from Republicans and Democrats for his answers and attention to detail. Here are highlights from the hearing.

Carson v. Trump: Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown used the hearing to identify conflict-of-interest challenges that a Trump presidency will bring to governing.


Warren pressed Carson to guarantee that he wouldn't use a single HUD grant or loan to benefit any company associated with Trump.

“Can you just assure us that not one dollar will go to benefit either the president-elect or his family?” said Warren (D-Mass.), the leader of her party's progressive wing.

"You cannot," Warren said, because even Trump's own nominees don't know what Trump owns. “The president-elect is hiding his family’s business interests from you, from me, from the rest of America."

Trump's business interests, which include one of the country's biggest public housing projects, Brooklyn's Starrett City, create particular problems for HUD, said Brown, the panel's top Democrat.

"Would you commit to report back on any issue that should arise at a property owned by Mr. Trump or his family or any contact that you or subordinates receive?" Brown, of Ohio, asked.

Carson vowed that his decisions would be “driven by a sense of morals and values.”

“I will absolutely not play favorites for anyone,” he said.

Obama’s FHA fee cut: Carson criticized sitting HUD Secretary Julian Castro for his last-minute move to cut the premiums that fund the Federal Housing Administration’s insurance fund.

Carson said he was “surprised to see something of this nature being done on the way out the door.” He said the fee cut could cost as much as $3 billion this year and up to $5 billion next year.

“Certainly, if confirmed I’m going to work with the FHA administrator and other experts to examine that policy,” Carson said.

Fair housing: Brown took Carson to task for a 2015 Washington Times opinion piece that criticized an Obama administration rule, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing. The rule requires cities and towns to look for and reverse patterns of racial bias in housing.

Carson said his view on the rule “has been distorted by many people.”

"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, D.C., deciding on how things should be done,” he said. “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.”

Lead wars: Carson found strong footing with Democrats by putting lead poisoning on his list of priorities. "Lead poisoning irreversibly affects brain and nervous system development, resulting in lower intelligence and reading disabilities," he said.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), noted that Freddie Gray, whose death in police custody led to riots in Baltimore, was a victim of lead paint, drawing a nod of approval from Carson.

"I’m not just talking about lead abatement. I’m talking about perhaps putting clinics in neighborhoods," Carson said.

Mortgage reform: Carson endorsed a government backstop in the mortgage market but said he wants to shrink the government footprint.

He told Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) that it was possible for the 30-year mortgage to exist without government support.

"But you can’t do it overnight," Carson said. "We can’t do it it in a haphazard way. We can’t do it in an ideological way."

In response to a question from Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) on the 30-year mortgage, Carson said "there are probably a number of ways to preserve that dream."

"Truthfully, I don’t see how it can happen," said Tester. "I can tell you it’s going to be difficult."