The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs’ Ranking Member, Senator Elizabeth Warren, published the written responses to her Questions for the Record from four of President Donald Trump’s nominees for Assistant Secretary posts at the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, ahead of the committee’s vote on their confirmations. Warren characterised the responses as raising concerns across sanctions and counter-illicit finance, HUD programme direction, and outbound investment security. On Treasury nominee Jonathan Burke, Warren said his answers did not indicate he would push back against the Administration’s rollbacks on counter-illicit finance and highlighted that he did not acknowledge Russia initiated the war against Ukraine, which she argued called into question whether he would advocate ending what she described as an eight-month pause on even basic Russia sanctions. HUD nominee Ben Hobbs supported measures including English-only efforts, work requirements, and time limits on housing assistance, which Warren said would undermine Public and Indian Housing programmes. HUD nominee Ronnie Kurtz declined to commit to opposing efforts to eliminate programmes aimed at increasing housing supply and lowering housing costs, with the release linking affordability pressures to Trump’s tariffs. Treasury nominee Christopher Pilkerton did not commit to working with Congress to codify the outbound investment security programme and did not specifically address whether he would treat Trump campaign or family contributors the same as others if confirmed.

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