House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the Biden administration on Monday to stave off looming evictions by extending a moratorium after Congress failed to do it last week, and the California Democrat wrote to fellow lawmakers, urging them to help speed up the distribution of federal COVID-19 aid meant for renters and landlords.
Pelosi wrote to fellow Democrats on Monday instructing them to use the seven-week recess to “urge the immediate disbursement of funds,” allocated earlier this year by Congress to prevent evictions and help landlords.
Local governments have distributed only a fraction of the $46.5 billion in aid for both renters and landlords.
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On Sunday, Democrats called on Biden to extend the moratorium on evictions, which expired Saturday.
“The money must flow, and the moratorium must be extended by the Administration,” Pelosi wrote.
House Democrats are grappling with backlash from their base after leaving town for the August recess without extending the moratorium themselves.
A group of liberal House Democrats has been camped out on the Capitol steps to highlight the threat of an eviction crisis now that the moratorium has ended.
They want Pelosi to reconvene the House to pass an extension. Pelosi said the House “is on 24-hour notice” but has not scheduled a vote.
“Since Friday — when some colleagues chose early vacation over voting to prevent evictions — we’ve been at the Capitol,” Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat who has faced eviction, said on Twitter on Monday. “It’s an eviction emergency. Our people need an eviction moratorium. Now.”
Democrats control the majority but could not round up enough votes to pass a moratorium extension before leaving town. Centrist Democrats opposed a plan to extend it until the end of the year. An attempt to pass a mid-October compromise also failed due to internal divisions.
The moratorium has staved off evictions but has hurt landlords, and there is increasing pressure to let it expire.
Most Democrats say it must be extended and cite the delta variant as one of the reasons to add more time. Millions of people could be evicted, they warn.
On Sunday, Pelosi called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to extend the moratorium, but the Biden administration said it can no longer take action unilaterally thanks to a Supreme Court ruling.
Pelosi and Democrats disagree. Pelosi, in the memo, said Congress “would work to address any vulnerability to the CDC identified by the courts.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Pelosi wrote to fellow lawmakers, would give a presentation on Tuesday on the funds for landlords and tenants, much of which has not been distributed.
“We all agree that the eviction crisis is an enormous challenge to the conscience of our country,” Pelosi wrote. “It is unfathomable that we would not act to prevent people from being evicted.”
Pelosi sent lawmakers a link to view each state’s funding levels and distribution efforts.
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She appeared to give a nod to Bush and other liberal Democrats occupying the steps to the Capitol.
“Thank you for your advocacy to avoid the shame on America that mass evictions would cause,” Pelosi wrote.
