CDC Issues New Eviction Moratorium After Liberal Criticism (1)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday extended a ban on evictions in areas of the country with significant and high transmission of the coronavirus after a firestorm of criticism from Democrats broke out on Saturday.

“The advent of the Delta variant has resulted in a rapid acceleration in community transmission in the United States, putting more Americans at increased risk, especially if they are not vaccinated,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “This moratorium is the right thing to do to keep people inside and outside of gathering places where Covid-19 is spreading.”

The CDC said the new ban, which will go through October 3, would give the federal government and states more time to pass a rental support program that has suffered bureaucratic delays and for more Americans to be vaccinated against the virus .

An increase in evictions, said Walensky, “could increase the likelihood of new spikes in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Such mass displacement and the associated public health consequences would be very difficult to reverse. “

The step shows the extent to which the spread of the Delta variant has turned the agenda of the Biden administration upside down. President Joe Biden previously said the CDC’s announcement was expected but warned that the new ban was legally challenged and potentially unconstitutional.

Biden said he hoped the move would buy time for the government and states to raise money from a $ 47 billion rental assistance program that has stalled since Congress approved late last year. The new moratorium “is likely to run into obstacles,” he said in the White House after a majority of Supreme Court justices warned that the CDC’s expired ban was illegal.

He said his administration has urged states and municipalities to distribute the billions of dollars provided by Congress faster to help troubled tenants and landlords.

“I went to constitutional scholars to find out what is the best option that would arise from action by the executive or the judgment of the CDC – what could they do to be the most constitutional survivor?” Said Biden. “Most of the constitutional research says it likely won’t pass constitutional drafting, number one. But there are some important scholars who say that it is possible and that it is worth the effort. “

The new moratorium will affect approximately 80% of U.S. counties and 90% of tenants, said a person familiar with the matter.

Progressive anger

Progressives were upset when the White House on Thursday, just two days before it expired, called on Congress to put in place an extension of the previous moratorium. And a liberal Democrat, New York MP Mondaire Jones, criticized Biden’s introduction of the latest ban.

“I think it is strange to raise questions about the constitutionality of your own executive right before that executive is carried out,” he said, predicting that landlord lawyers contesting the moratorium would quote Biden’s words in their court records.

“This is not the behavior, this is not the comment of someone who is actually trying to help people,” said Jones. “And it’s really frustrating to hear that kind of language from the President of the United States.”

But the move to introduce a new eviction moratorium has been welcomed by other democratic lawmakers and housing advocates. House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi called it a day of “extraordinary relief,” saying the new ban “will give the money allocated by Congress time to flow as it helps stop the spread of the virus due to the delta Stop variant and protect families and landlords. “

The executive director of the activist group MoveOn.org, Rahna Epting, said pressure from progressive lawmakers had forced the Biden government to act. She quoted Missouri MP Cori Bush, who slept on the Capitol steps for several nights starting Friday to protest the expiry of the previous ban.

“She showed us the urgency and the content of it and how it will affect millions of people. This could have continued into the night if she hadn’t organized herself and protested, ”said Epting.

Legal arguments

The Biden White House has faced harsh criticism for days from its own party for the expiry of the July 31 eviction moratorium. Proponents said millions of Americans could potentially be forced out of their homes if Covid-19 cases rose.

The White House spent days explaining the legal rationale for an initial CDC ruling that it couldn’t issue another renewal and sent senior officials including Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to Capitol Hill to answer lawmakers’ questions to answer.

Early Tuesday, Yellen faced significant anger from Democrats in the House of Representatives who urged the government to take immediate action to extend the eviction ban, according to several people who participated in the appeal.

Yellen said the administration was focused on getting states and municipalities to distribute the rent subsidy already approved by Congress more quickly.

Biden said that “at least” litigation over the new moratorium will “give some extra time while we are paying out that $ 45 billion to people who are actually behind on rent and have no money.”

(Adds more details from the CDC statement from the third paragraph)

–With assistance from Jennifer Epstein and Jarrell Dillard.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Nancy Cook in Washington at ncook40@bloomberg.net;
Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net;
Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net

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