INTERVIEW: Why HUD Secretary Scott Turner and Rep. Lisa McClain want Jerome Powell to cut interest rates
Both policymakers invited Jerome Powell to tour the country with them to learn what Americans really need from the federal government.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Rep. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.) had a joint message for Jerome Powell ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting: cut interest rates.
The two policymakers partnered for HUD’s Innovative Housing Showcase, which they held on the National Mall, and both spoke with the Washington Reporter about why Powell needs to learn from their leadership and hear directly from the American people; both, in fact, invited him to tour the country with them.
“He needs to bring [interest rates] down,” Turner said. “This is not an individual thing. This is a team effort. From a fiduciary standpoint, from a monetary standpoint, from a regulatory standpoint, from a congressional standpoint, from an agency standpoint, from the president's standpoint, everybody is doing what they're supposed to be doing in order to help American people achieve the American Dream and to create housing. And so my question [to Powell] is what are you doing now? Why does it make sense for you not to bring down interest rates from a businessman’s perspective?”
McClain agreed with both Turner and with President Donald Trump, who has been pressuring Powell to lower interest rates for months.
“At the end of the day, I'm out there in the communities, and I hear from people who are thinking about buying or who want to buy, and the rates are a big deal for that,” McClain said. “It just matters. What I always tell people is that Washington bubble is real. What I would suggest is Jerome Powell might want to get out, come down from the Washington bubble and actually go and talk to average Americans on the street who are struggling with the interest rates, and who are concerned about the interest rates…We work for the people. The least we could ask is that we actually listen.”
Both McClain and Turner also laid out three-point agendas that each are working on to lower costs for Americans like their children to buy a home, which both said is a critical part of the American Dream.
“Number one, we have got to make things in America,” McClain said. “Number two, we need to bring prices down. And number three, we've absolutely got to take and remove a lot of the burdensome rules and regulations. Regulations are killing people, from the builders to the manufacturers to the actual end consumer.”
Turner’s vision is similar. “One of the biggest things that we can do from a federal standpoint, but also, even more importantly, from a local standpoint, is to tear down burdensome regulations,” he said. “At HUD, when we first came in, we said, ‘let's take inventory of all the programs that we have at HUD, let's take inventory of the regulatory environment.’ So we took down the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, which made HUD a national zoning board. And when we took that down, it restored the flexibility back to the localities, because every community, urban, tribal, and rural, has unique needs.”
“When you have burdensome regulations, it cripples development,” Turner continued. “It cripples building. Tearing those down is important, and then again, public-private partnerships and looking at underutilized federal lands to build affordable housing is important. So those are the top three things.”
McClain and Turner were joined by their colleagues in both Congress — including Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (D., Mo.), Zach Nunn (R., Iowa,), Bill Huizenga (R., Mich.), and Mike Flood (R., Neb.) — and in the Trump cabinet at the showcase, along with companies from across America that build temporary homes on the mall to show what the future of housing can look like and how everyone can work together to make housing more affordable.
Huizenga told the Reporter that he’s “glad to see an administration finally serious about attacking the issues that have caused housing costs to outstrip inflation.”
“We need innovation and creativity in housing policy and zoning to help achieve the goal of affordable housing,” he added. “It must be an across the board approach now, with the federal government leading the charge.”
During the showcase, Lori Chavez-DeRemer — the Secretary of Labor — spoke from the main stage about how she is working with Turner and the rest of the administration on housing costs.
“Nothing's better than providing a roof over your head for your families,” she said. “You guys have answered the call. This is a way to do it. This is affordable housing: three bedrooms, two bathrooms, for $200,000? That’s unheard of. What we do know the last administration, the rules and regulations [were excessive]; $500,000 a door is not affordable housing….We're going to answer the call as secretaries. We're going to create the jobs, and we're going to create the homes.”
One of the event’s displayers — Barry Bialik — runs Compact Cottages, and he gave the Reporter a tour of a home that he and his team built on the National Mall in “three days with three guys.” Bialik has been in business for decades, but he and his Ashville-based company recently rolled out what they call “origami houses,” which they can unfold on site for as little as $100,000.
“Factory component housing is definitely the future [of housing in America], because the amount of people in the construction trades is decreasing, so what you have to do is make it more interesting for young people to become part of the trades, so you make building a house more like a video game,” Bialik said. “That’s what we’re doing — we’re basically playing Tetris while we build. It’s like a mixture between Lego and Ikea.”
One of the event’s largest homes was a 3,000 square foot temporary duplex one that took 10 hours to build over two days; Jess Lohse, the executive director of the Structural Building Components Association (SBCA) gave the Reporter a tour inside the duplex, which the SBCA will ultimately be donating to Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Virginia.
Both McClain and Turner also offered their advice to the legion of first-time home buyers in America, based on their years working in public policy.
“I think debt free is very, very important,” McClain said. “Everybody has to have a mortgage. There are very few people who can actually buy a home with cash. Interest rates and credit matter. So to me, live within your means, buy within your means, but that access to credit and affordable credit and affordable housing are key.”
“If I could tell my younger self something,” Turner said, “I would say take your time in picking the right house for you and your family…don't be afraid to take a risk in the sense of it's the greatest investment that you can make.”
“Be wise and calculating,” Turner concluded. “But don't be afraid.”
Below is a transcript of our interview with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner and Rep. Lisa McClain.
Washington Reporter:
Congresswoman McClain, why is this an important priority to partner with HUD on this innovative housing showcase?
Rep. Lisa McClain:
Because of all of the overregulations and burdensome rules and regulations, home ownership for a lot of Americans is out of reach. It used to be that home home ownership was the American Dream, right? We have to get that back and accessible and attainable for every American. I take a look at my son who's trying to buy a home right now; you can't touch anything in my community, anything decent, for under $400,000 or $500,000. It's absolutely crazy. And it's our job as Republicans to make sure that home ownership is affordable and attainable and that's what we're doing. I'm proud to sponsor legislation to repeal back some burdensome rules and regulations. That's a good start.
Washington Reporter:
What have the Trump administration and Congress done so far to make it more affordable for Americans like your son to buy a home?
Rep. Lisa McClain:
Number one, we have got to make things in America. Number two, we need to bring prices down. And number three, we've absolutely got to take and remove a lot of the burdensome rules and regulations. Regulations are killing people, from the builders to the manufacturers to the actual end consumer.
Washington Reporter:
Secretary Turner, can you tell us from your standpoint why it was important for you to partner with Congresswoman McClain on events like today's to take your message from HUD to the American people? We're literally on a national mall right now. Why is this important for you?
Secretary Scott Turner:
Well, it's important because we have a housing affordability issue going on in our country. We need about 7 million units of housing — single family, multi family, duplex, manufactured housing, modular, tiny houses, anything that we can do to build housing to support the American people, ultimately for the American people to achieve the American Dream. And that's the thing of our innovative housing showcase: the American home is the American Dream. When you have great partners like Lisa, that’s important, because it's going to take all of us, the whole of government. But not only that, it’ll take public-private partnerships. The government is not the solution. HUD is not the solution. HUD is a great convener of stakeholder groups, and that's what you see here at the Mall. You see private sector entities, individuals and companies, coming together with creativity, innovativeness and ingenuity, and even the technology to create more resiliency in housing. And so when you have leaders that come together for this said purpose, I believe that it's a great blessing for the American people.
Washington Reporter:
Congresswoman McClain was just talking about what she's doing from the legislative side to make it easier for especially first time homebuyers like her son to buy houses; what from the HUD priority list is being done to make it easier for younger Americans to be able to get that critical part of the American Dream?
Secretary Scott Turner:
We both have young people as kids.
Washington Reporter:
And you're both young yourself!
Rep. Lisa McClain:
And that’s crazy, because we’re both around 32!
Secretary Scott Turner:
One of the biggest things that we can do from a federal standpoint, but also, even more importantly, from a local standpoint, is to tear down burdensome regulations, and at HUD, when we first came in, we said, ‘let's take inventory of all the programs that we have at HUD, let's take inventory of the regulatory environment.’ So we took down the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, which made HUD a national zoning board. And when we took that down, it restored the flexibility back to the localities, because every community, urban, tribal, and rural, has unique needs. And so when you say, ‘look localities, mayors, economic development states, your needs are different in Dubuque, Iowa than they are in Plano, Texas, or in the Peninsula of Michigan than they are in Cleveland, Ohio.’ We’ve taken down these burdensome regulations and encouraged localities to do the same, because this is a really a local issue. When you have burdensome regulations, it cripples development. It cripples building. Tearing those down is important, and then again, public-private partnerships and looking at underutilized federal lands to build affordable housing is important. So those are the top three things.
Washington Reporter:
And we know Jerome Powell is doing his own thing, but if you both had one message to him, based on what you've learned from being back home in recess and what you've learned running this agency, what would you want his takeaway to be from everything that you have seen from government in this second Trump term so far?
Secretary Scott Turner:
What I want him to see is that everyone else is doing what they're supposed to be doing.
Rep. Lisa McClain:
Join the party!
Secretary Scott Turner:
That's a real message, because this is not an individual thing. This is a team effort. From a fiduciary standpoint, from a monetary standpoint, from a regulatory standpoint, from a congressional standpoint, from an agency standpoint, from the president's standpoint, everybody is doing what they're supposed to be doing in order to help American people achieve the American Dream and to create housing. And so my question is what are you doing now? Why does it make sense for you not to bring down interest rates from a businessman’s perspective? He needs to bring them down.
Rep. Lisa McClain:
At the end of the day, I'm out there in the communities, and I hear from people who are thinking about buying or who want to buy, and the rates are a big deal for that. It just matters. What I always tell people is that Washington bubble is real. What I would suggest is Jerome Powell might want to get out, come down from the Washington bubble and actually go and talk to average Americans on the street who are struggling with the interest rates, and who are concerned about the interest rates. We need to connect and listen to our local communities, our local constituents. It's really simple. We work for the people. The least we could ask is that we actually listen.
Secretary Scott Turner:
I’m happy to take him on a trip.
Rep. Lisa McClain:
Me too, I invite him out to our communities.
Washington Reporter:
Based on what you both have learned from your years in government in various capacities, what do you wish you knew when you were buying your first home that you could have told yourself at the time?
Rep. Lisa McClain:
I think debt free is very, very important; everybody has to have a mortgage. There are very few people who can actually buy a home with cash. Interest rates and credit matter. So to me, live within your means, buy within your means, but that access to credit and affordable credit and affordable housing is key. And one thing that we really didn't touch upon, that I really want to touch upon, is we look and change our minds and change our lens on what housing looks like. The manufacturing housing of yesterday is not the manufacturing housing of today. That's why I think it's so important to get out into your communities to take a look and listen.
Secretary Scott Turner:
I agree with the congresswoman. If you come actually see it and you see the 2025 version of manufactured housing, modular housing, you will be blown away. And I want all of our government leaders to come see it, because then you can talk about it. It's fascinating. That's the word I'll use. And if I could tell my younger self something, I would say take your time in picking the right house for you and your family. And the second part of that is, is don't be afraid to take a risk in the sense of it's the greatest investment that you can make. Be wise and calculating, but don't be afraid.
Washington Reporter:
Thank you both so much for your time.