Standing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, where she’d spent the night, Rep. Cori Bush urged her fellow House members who’d left for an 7-week break to come back and extend a federal ban on evictions.
The ban was set to expire on Saturday after Congress had failed to act on Friday before leaving town.
“I’m asking my colleagues to show up. They can come back to D.C. Let’s go back to work. Some people never left,” said Ms. Bush, Missouri Democrat, who had slept on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Friday night. She stood by a lawn chair and a sleeping bag the next afternoon and said she had no plans to leave.
“We’re waiting to hear that the moratorium has been extended, and if we don’t hear that, then I’m still here,” Ms. Bush said.
However, no change appeared imminent. President Biden urged state and local governments to distribute unspent emergency rental assistance from Washington, as he left Washington on Friday to go to Camp David for the weekend, with the eviction ban ending on Saturday.
The Supreme Court last month had allowed the moratorium instituted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the midst of the pandemic a year ago to stay in place until Saturday. The court said it would take congressional action to extend it further.
SEE ALSO: Biden calls on states to help stop evictions as federal moratorium expires
“People could be forced from their homes and some of them as early as tomorrow,” Ms. Bush said. It’s something that Congress or the White House of the CDC can change. They can affect it right now,” she said.
• Kery Murakami can be reached at kmurakami@washingtontimes.com.
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