The Biden administration is expected to announce on Tuesday evening a modified, two-month-long eviction moratorium that covers roughly “90% of renters” just days after letting the full, federal moratorium expire.
Biden administration officials told the Washington Examiner that the new moratorium would be announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but declined to give additional details on the moratorium itself.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WARY OF SUPREME COURT INTERVENTION IN EVICTION CHALLENGES
President Joe Biden suggested that the CDC’s modified options could prevent roughly 90% of all renters from eviction but clarified that “any call” to extend some form of eviction moratorium is “likely to face legal obstacles.”
“I’ve indicated to the CDC I’d like them to look at other alternatives,” he told reporters during a question-and-answer session following remarks delivered on the state of the pandemic. “The CDC will have something to announce to you in the next hour to two hours.”
“Constitutionally, the bulk of the constitutional scholarship says that it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster,” the president said. “Look. I want to make it clear. I told you I would not tell the Justice Department or the medical experts or scientists what they should say or do, so I don’t want to get ahead of the CDC.”
Biden noted that “at a minimum, by the time it is litigated, we’ll probably give some additional time while we’re getting that $45 billion out to people who are, in fact, behind in the rent and don’t have the money.”
On Friday, the White House urged Congress to pass legislation extending an eviction moratorium through the end of the year, but Democratic leadership and members of the left-wing “Squad” threw the onus back on President Joe Biden.
The White House originally chose to let the old moratorium expire based on a June 29 decision handed down by the Supreme Court, but administration officials faced a litany of questions in recent days on why they waited until the eleventh hour to ask Congress for an extension.
Senior adviser to the president Gene Sperling told reporters at Monday’s White House press briefing that some officials were concerned that challenging the initial ruling could eventually lead the court to limit the CDC’s emergency powers, which the administration has taken advantage of in pursuit of the president’s legislative agenda.
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“It is a consideration that I think, you know, may have affected some of us,” Sperling said at the time.
