The White House is defending a modified eviction moratorium that could cover close to “90% of renters” after a broader federal moratorium lapsed, arguing that the new rule provides a workaround because it is expressly targeted.
“The justification, from the legal team, is that this is a different moratorium. It’s narrow. It’s targeted at the areas highest impacted. It is not an extension of the national moratorium that was struck down just six months ago,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that an earlier eviction moratorium could only be extended by an act of Congress. When the moratorium was set to expire over the weekend, the White House urged lawmakers late last week to pass legislation to extend the rule through the end of the year. But Democrats failed to secure this and put the onus back on President Joe Biden.
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Calls for Biden to take action accelerated over the weekend, with pressure heaped by members of the “Squad,” a group of far-left House Democrats, who began sleeping on the steps of the Capitol on Friday. One member, Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, said she would not return home before finding a solution. Biden did not meet with Bush, but Vice President Kamala Harris did.
Asked if the White House was prompted to act by Bush’s protest, Psaki said it would be impossible to hear the freshman representative’s personal story of homelessness “and not be moved.”
“But I would just reiterate that the president called for the extension of the moratorium back in January,” Psaki said.
At the White House Monday, senior Biden adviser Gene Sperling said some officials were concerned that extending the initial moratorium could prompt the Supreme Court to challenge the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s emergency powers and, with this, other pandemic assistance.
But on Tuesday, Biden said the CDC was proceeding with a workaround that could cover “close to 90%” of renters in the country.
“Whether that option will pass constitutional muster with this administration, I can’t tell you,” Biden said. “But, at a minimum, by the time it gets litigated, it will 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.”
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The move marked a sharp turn from one day earlier, when top Biden officials suggested that the administration had no room to act unilaterally.
“The CDC director and her team have been unable to find legal authority” to extend the moratorium, Sperling said Monday, reiterating that Biden “has not only kicked the tires, he has double, triple, quadruple checked.”
