Biden pleads with states to distribute housing funds after House fails to extend eviction moratorium which expires on Sunday and affects 3.6M people
President Joe Biden urged states to push federal funds out the door Friday night as lawmakers scrambled to try to jam through legislation that would keep millions of Americans from being evicted amid an expiring ban as the Delta variant proliferates.
With no certain solution in sight, the White House released a statement late Friday urging states to act on their own to spend federal funds and encouraged states and localities to keep their own protections in place.
'As the eviction moratorium deadline approaches tomorrow, I call on all state and local governments to take all possible steps to immediately disburse these funds given the imminent ending of the CDC eviction moratorium,' Biden said.
After hours of talks failed to produce a solution, House leaders tried to bring up an extension Friday evening that would extend the existing moratorium until mid October, but a Republican objected, keeping it from coming up.
The House has no votes expected next week, leaders announced - meaning the moratorium is set to take effect.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders blasted the move after the failure to broker a deal or even get something on the floor in a chamber they control.
'It is extremely disappointing that House and Senate Republicans have refused to work with us on this issue. We strongly urge them to reconsider their opposition to helping millions of Americans and instead join with us to help renters and landlords hit hardest by the pandemic and prevent a nationwide eviction crisis,' they said.
President Joe Biden called on states and localities to 'take all possible steps to immediately disburse' federal funds as a nationwide eviction moratorium was set to expire
A House panel convened to consider emergency legislation to extend the ban on evictions, with a federal moratorium set to expire Saturday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has implored colleagues to act,
Even if Pelosi had gotten the House to act, the bill faced strong opposition in the Senate.
Biden in his statement pointed to $22 billion in funds from the American Rescue Plan.
'Every state and local government must get these funds out to ensure we prevent every eviction we can. State and local governments can and should use both the Emergency Rental Assistance and their American Rescue Plan state and local funds to support policies with courts, community groups, and legal aid to ensure no one seeks an eviction when they have not sought out Emergency Rental Assistance funds,' he said.
He also told them there was no 'legal barrier' to state and local bans, even after the Supreme Court extended the federal ban until the end of the month on a 5-4 decision, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh saying he would block future extensions without 'clear and specific congressional authorization' from Congress.
A House panel convened to consider emergency legislation to extend the ban, which expires Saturday. But no vote has been set. Congressional leaders and the White House struggled to rally support.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., left, and House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., go over their notes at the House Rules Committee as they prepare an emergency extension of the eviction moratorium, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, July 30, 2021
An estimated 3.6 million Americans are facing potential eviction
More than 3.6 million Americans are at risk of eviction, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has implored colleagues to act, calling it a "moral imperative" to protect renters and also the landlords who are owed compensation.
But facing difficulty in quickly passing a measure through Congress, Pelosi on Friday urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to continue the moratorium, despite President Joe Biden's announcement ruling out administration action. She was preparing legislation that would direct the CDC to extend the ban through Oct. 18, in line with the health emergency. An earlier proposal that would have continued the moratorium through Dec. 31 lacked support.
"It is our hope that we could pass a bill extending the eviction moratorium to that date immediately," Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues.
Biden said Thursday that the administration's hands are tied after the Supreme Court signaled the moratorium would only be extended until the end of the month.
People from a coalition of housing justice groups hold signs protesting evictions during a news conference outside the Statehouse, Friday, July 30, 2021, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Pelosi said Friday at the Capitol that the sight of families' belongings piled on the street is "wrenching" and must be prevented as the states struggle to distribute some $47 billion in federal funds to renters and landlords.
Congress must "meet the needs of the American people: both the families unable to make rent and those to whom the rent is to be paid," she said earlier in a letter.
Not all lawmakers are on board with an extension, and the House is preparing to leave Friday for a scheduled recess. The Senate is also considering emergency legislation, but passage in that 50-50 chamber would be even more difficult.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the Financial Services Committee chair who wrote the emergency bill, urged her colleagues to act.
"Is it emergency enough that you're going to stop families from being put on the street?" Waters said as the Rules Committee met to consider the bill. "What the hell is going to happen to these children?"
But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the top Republican on another panel handling the issue, said the Democrats' bill was rushed.
"This is not the way to legislate," she said.
Congress pushed nearly $47 billion to the states earlier in the COVID-19 crisis to shore up landlords and renters as workplaces shut down and many people were suddenly out of work.
But lawmakers said state governments have been slow to distribute the money. On Friday, they said only some $3 billion has been spent.
By the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau´s Household Pulse Survey.
Some places are likely to see spikes in evictions starting Monday, while other jurisdictions will see an increase in court filings that will lead to evictions over several months.
The ban was initially put in place to prevent further spread of COVID-19 by people put out on the streets and into shelters.
"It's incredibly important to move forward," said deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the White House briefing. She said the administration backs the congressional effort "to extend the eviction moratorium to protect these vulnerable renters and their families."
The White House has been clear that Biden would have liked to extend the federal eviction moratorium because of the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. But there are also concerns that challenging the court could lead to a ruling restricting the administration´s ability to respond to future public health crises.
The administration is trying to keep renters in place through other means. It released more than $1.5 billion in rental assistance in June, which helped nearly 300,000 households. Biden on Thursday asked the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs to extend their eviction moratoriums on households living in federally insured, single-family homes through the end of September.
On a 5-4 vote last month, the Supreme Court allowed the broad eviction ban to continue through the end of July. One of those in the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, made clear he would block any additional extensions unless there was "clear and specific congressional authorization."
Aides to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, the chair of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, said the two were working on legislation to extend the moratorium and were asking Republicans not to block it.
"The public health necessity of extended protections for renters is obvious," said Diane Yentel, executive director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. "If federal court cases made a broad extension impossible, the Biden administration should implement all possible alternatives, including a more limited moratorium on federally backed properties."
Gene Sperling, who is charged with overseeing implementation of Biden´s $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package, said it was key that states and local authorities speed up distribution of the billions in rental assistance approved earlier by Congress.
Landlords, who have opposed the moratorium and challenged it repeatedly in court, are against any extension. They, too, are arguing for speeding up the distribution of rental assistance.
The National Apartment Association and several others this week filed a federal lawsuit asking for $26 billion in damages because of the impact of the moratorium.
"Any extension of the eviction moratorium equates to an unfunded government mandate that forces housing providers to deliver a costly service without compensation and saddles renters with insurmountable debt," association president and CEO Bob Pinnegar said, adding that the current crisis highlights a need for more affordable housing.
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Casey reported from Boston. Associated Press writers Alexandra Jaffe, Mark Sherman and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.
People from a coalition of housing justice groups hold signs protesting evictions during a news conference outside the Statehouse, Friday, July 30, 2021, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
A woman speaks on the phone in front of a sign in Haitian Creole during a news conference held by a coalition of housing justice groups to protest evictions, Friday, July 30, 2021, outside the Statehouse in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Democratic leaders discuss their legislative agenda, including voting rights, public health, and infrastructure, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, July 30, 2021. Hours before a nationwide eviction moratorium is set to expire, Pelosi is urging an extension in a longshot effort to prevent millions of Americans of being forced from their homes during a COVID-19 surge. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., left, and House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., go over their notes at the House Rules Committee as they prepare an emergency extension of the eviction moratorium, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, July 30, 2021. President Joe Biden called on "Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay." (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Democratic leaders discuss their legislative agenda, including voting rights, public health, and infrastructure, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, July 30, 2021. Hours before a nationwide eviction moratorium is set to expire, Pelosi is urging an extension in a longshot effort to prevent millions of Americans of being forced from their homes during a COVID-19 surge. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., left, and House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., go over their notes at the House Rules Committee as they prepare an emergency extension of the eviction moratorium, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, July 30, 2021. President Joe Biden called on "Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay." (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)