Pelosi, progressives step up calls for Biden administration to extend eviction moratorium

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday stepped up pressure on the Biden administration to renew the eviction moratorium, saying she awaits a response from the president.

With 3.6 million Americans at risk of being evicted as soon as Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated her call to the Biden administration to immediately renew the now-lapsed eviction moratorium on Monday after House Democrats over the weekend failed to pass legislation via unanimous consent to extend it to Oct. 18. "As they have called upon the American people to mask up, to be vaccinated and to take other public health precautions, it is critical, in recognition of this urgency, that they extend the eviction moratorium," Pelosi said of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a new letter to Democratic colleagues Monday morning. "Putting people on the streets contributes to the spread of the virus." It comes after freshman Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who highlights how she was once homeless herself, spent her third night sleeping on the Capitol steps to protest the end of the moratorium even as most House lawmakers had already headed home for the August recess. As Pelosi says she now awaits a new response from the administration, the White House said last week that it can't unilaterally extend the moratorium because of a Supreme Court ruling in late June when Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the 5-4 majority, said he would block additional extensions unless there was "clear and specific congressional authorization."