As a part of the Democrats’ alleged covid response, Congress declared a “moratorium” on evictions. While this might have had a positive effect for some, the negative effect was to encourage a large number of tenants to stop paying rent and leave their landlords on the hook for mortgage payments.
The original moratorium was pushed by federal law, the “CARES Act,” enacted into law in March of last year. That law only covers properties financed through federal loan programs. Since this time, the CDC has claimed the authority to extend that law to all homes and has repeatedly lengthened the time frame of the moratorium.
The last extension of the CDC moratorium expired yesterday.
There was hope by many of the more anti-American Democrats in Congress that a new moratorium would be accepted, but Congress left for its August recess without taking action, and the prospects of a new moratorium are grim. So now a new blame game has started.
President Biden put the focus on local and state governments to stem the impact of evictions, hours before the end of a late push spearheaded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) for Congress to extend the moratorium.
Biden asked governments to use the money given in earlier covid relief bills more quickly as the moratorium on evictions expired on Saturday night.
His plea came as House Dem leaders tried to get support from their caucus to push the eviction moratorium deadline back to October, an effort that was a herculean task as the leadership attempted to whip support at the 11th hour before the House began its almost two-month recess. The effort ultimately ended in failure.
About 20 moderate Dems were against the extension because of worries that the time frame was too long for the federal moratorium to keep going without oversight of how efficient previous relief programs were in preventing the evictions, several Dem aides said on the condition of anonymity.
Dem leaders and Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) discussed for over two hours on Friday afternoon inside Nancy Pelosi’s office, where they created a new effort — including Pelosi’s personal calls to Democrats — to twist arms and force support for the bill.
When Nancy Pelosi later blamed Republicans for the failure to get the election moratorium extended, she was stopped cold by none other than AOC in an interview with CNN.
CNN's @jaketapper: "Who's to blame" for the failure to extend the eviction moratorium?
Rep. @AOC gives a very honest answer about conservative House Democrats threatening to get on planes and Biden WH waiting 'til the day before. pic.twitter.com/3zVncWDpb7
— The Recount (@therecount) August 1, 2021
It is a moral imperative to keep people from being put out in the street which also contributes to the public health emergency.
The virus is still a threat, the moratorium must be extended and the funds Congress allocated to assist renters and landlords must be spent.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) August 1, 2021
Author: Blake Ambrose
