National eviction moratorium has expired; millions could face eviction

WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — The federal eviction moratorium has expired and millions of Americans behind on rent could face eviction this month.

Now, House Democrats are scrambling to come up with a solution to keep people in their homes as the annual recess for Congress approaches.

“We can’t go home or go on vacation while seven million, eight, nine, possibly 11 million people lose their homes,” said Missouri Democrat Cori Bush.

Bush has been holding a virtual vigil on the Capitol steps, joined by colleagues including Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern, chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee.

“Our chairman of the House Rules Committee Jim McGovern said yesterday that the House Rules Committee is ready to come back and he used the word nanosecond,” Bush said.

“We also can reconvene Congress,” McGovern said. “Those who can make it back and go back in person and those who can’t, can vote by proxy. But really, there’s no reason why we couldn’t reconvene.”

Eviction politics has also turned into a game of pass the buck with Congress blaming the White House.

“The White House waited until the day before the House adjourned to release a statement asking on Congress to extend the moratorium,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN.

The White House is blaming the states.

“The states have the tools, the localities have the tools and there’s no excuse,” said Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, on Fox News. “They need to move that money to those renters and those landlords immediately.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a letter to colleagues, blamed the Supreme Court saying quote “the situation has worsened since June 29, since Justice Kavanaugh declared that irrespective of the public health situation, he was not going to vote to extend the moratorium.”

Democrats are also blaming other Democrats.

“We have to really just call a spade a spade,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN. “We cannot, in good faith, blame the Republican Party when House Democrats have a majority.”

Bush, though, insists that the remedy is in Congress.

“We are the lawmakers,” Bush said. “There’s nobody else who makes this happen. It’s only for us to make it happen.”

Congressman McGovern agrees.

“We need to continue to pressure every member of Congress, including Republicans, to do the right thing,” McGovern said. “And I think once we get to that magic number of 218, we got to reconvene and get this done.”

NewsNation spoke with a landlord about the eviction moratorium ending. See the full interview in the player below.