Press Releases

WASHINGTON DC – Today, Congressman Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), and Congresswoman Cori Bush (MO-01) are leading a group of 41 lawmakers in sending a letter to President Biden and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky urging them to extend and strengthen the federal CDC eviction moratorium beyond its current expiration date of Wednesday, June 30, 2021. 
 
“Without further action, in just eight days, the CDC moratorium will expire, and millions of renters will once again face the threat of eviction. Evictions take lives and push households deeper into poverty, impacting everything from health outcomes to educational attainment,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “As workers and families across the country are just beginning to recoup from the trauma and economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we must take all necessary action to protect them from becoming unhoused during this vulnerable time.”
 
The eviction crisis is a matter of public health, racial, and economic justice. According to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, Black, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous households are more likely to report being behind on their rental payments. Additionally, communities with lower vaccination rates and higher COVID-19 cases tend to be those at a heightened risk for eviction. Allowing the moratorium to expire would both exacerbate the eviction crisis disproportionately impacting communities of color and potentially lead to an increase in the spread of, and deaths from, COVID-19. 
 
“The Biden Administration must aid those facing eviction by extending and significantly strengthening the current CDC moratorium to ensure the protections are automatic, self-executing, and that tenants are not expected to navigate a myriad of overly burdensome eligibility requirements in order to safely remain in their homes,” the lawmakers said. “The impact of the federal moratorium cannot be overstated.” 
 
This letter is co-signed by: Reps. Ritchie Torres, Nydia M. Velazquez, Marie Newman, Karen Bass, Jesus G. “Chuy” Garcia, Andre Carson,  Bonnie Watson Coleman, Barbara Lee, Donald S. Beyer Jr., Jan Schakowsky, Ted W. Lieu, Henry C. Johnson Jr., Carolyn B. Maloney, James P. McGovern, Alan Lowenthal, Jamaal Bowman, Betty McCollum, Adriano Espaillat, Frederica Wilson, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Brenda Lawrence, Bobby Rush, Rashida Tlaib, Earl Blumenauer, Kweisi Mfume, Rick Larsen, Mark Pocan, Grace Meng, Jim Cooper, Veronica Escobar, Diana DeGette, Raul Grijalva, Gregory Meeks, Ruben Gallego, Ro Khanna, Jim Himes, Danny Davis, Jerrold Nadler and Ilhan Omar.
 
In January 2021, Reps. Gomez and Pressley led a letter to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris urging them to use executive action to extend and strengthen the national eviction moratorium for the duration of the pandemic.

Click here to view a PDF of the letter.