Pelosi failed to get enough House or Senate votes to prevent the expiration of eviction bands and now she is urging President Biden to extend the moratoriums as the CDC calls for masks and the Delta variant booms.
Pelosi pressures Biden to extend eviction moratorium after failing to motivate Congress
After apparently failing to roust enough members in the House and Senate to extend the moratorium on evictions, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is now urging President Joe Biden to extend the ban.
Last week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said: “In light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, the President calls on Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay.”
But Congress could not garner enough votes. Now Pelosi is trying to put the ball back in the court of the executive branch.
“Action is needed, and it must come from the Administration. That is why House leadership is calling on the Administration to immediately extend the moratorium,” Speaker Pelosi said in a statement on Sunday morning just hours after the moratorium ended. “As the CDC doubles down on mask-wearing and vaccination efforts, science and reason demand that they must also extend the moratorium in light of the delta variant.”
Pelosi along with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC), and Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark (D-MA) put out a joint statement Sunday insisting the Biden administration “must take action,” the Daily Wire reported.
Pelosi tweeted on Sunday: “The CDC has the power to extend the eviction moratorium. As they double down on masks, why wouldn’t they extend the moratorium in light of delta variant?”
Democrats divided on evictions
Despite a push from Democratic leaders, there is a divide within the party itself. Democratic leaders failed to win the support of moderates within their caucus, Politico reported.
As of Monday morning, the White House and President Biden had not responded to Pelosi’s comments, Fox reported.
Members of Congress on Capitol steps to pressure Biden
Members of the so-called “squad” of Democrats continued to camp out on the Capitol steps to protest the inaction from their own party.
Representative Cori Bush (D-MO), along with other members of the squad such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) posted a photo of themselves with a group of people camping out on the Capitol steps.
“We’re still here,” Bush tweeted. “We have to reconvene the House and vote to reinstate the eviction moratorium to put an end to the eviction emergency. We’re still here. We have to reconvene the House and vote to reinstate the eviction moratorium to put an end to the eviction emergency.”
In another tweet on Sunday night, Bush said she’d heard “thousands” of evictions occurred on the first day that the moratorium expired with “millions to come.”
“People are being forcibly removed from their homes RIGHT NOW,” Bush added.
