Keep the ban

For the first time since March 27, 2020, when the largest COVID aid package, the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, was signed into law, there is no national moratorium on residential evictions in place. It’s not as though COVID is over; numbers are rising again almost everywhere. It’s not as though any more than a piffle of the $46.5 billion Congress set aside to let tenants pay landlords has been distributed. The public health threat remains, the protections are gone and for millions, the promised help never materialized.

This means potentially millions of Americans are at risk of losing their homes even though there were huge piles of cash specifically authorized to prevent it. Don’t blame the landlords for this one. Fault goes to foolish pass the buckism between the ruling Democrats in the Congress and the White House. The only immediate fix is for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring back the House from vacation and extend the ban, then have the Senate follow suit.

Some states, like New York, have their own moratoria, but those will also sunset (New York’s goes out Aug. 31), so the mess is just being postponed in those places if the rental aid can’t get where it needs to be in time.

The initial bipartisan nationwide eviction freeze lapsed after 120 days, last July 25, but was extended several times by the CDC under Donald Trump and then Joe Biden. The final four-week CDC extension ended Saturday. We know that it’s final because a month ago, a U.S. Supreme Court majority basically said that the CDC didn’t have the power, only Congress does, but that the court would let the final freeze stay in place.

So the Biden White House and his CDC are out of the moratorium business. But Congress let time slip away and left on vacation. Pelosi is now calling on Biden to issue an order extending the freeze to Oct. 18. She’s the one who has to lead, and lead now.