[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 135 (Saturday, July 31, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S5228]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          EVICTION MORATORIUM

  Ms. WARREN. Madam President, almost exactly a year ago today, I stood 
here and called for Congress to take action to protect renters before 
the expiration of the eviction moratorium enacted during the early 
weeks of the pandemic.
  Today, like a year ago, we are only hours away from a fully 
preventable housing crisis.
  The CDC's eviction moratorium expires tonight at midnight, putting 
millions of families still recovering from the economic fallout of 
COVID-19 at risk for losing their homes, from losing the bedrock of 
their safety and stability.
  Right now, more than 11 million renters report being behind on rent. 
That is one out of every seven renters. And people of color, who have 
been hit hardest by this pandemic, are disproportionately at risk. 
Nearly one-quarter of Black renters report being behind on rental 
payments.
  Last year, Congress worked together to account for that staggering 
reality. We provided more than $45 billion in emergency rental 
assistance. That money is now finally getting into the hands of 
landlords around the country. It is helping families who lost jobs get 
caught up on the missed payments.
  But the money is getting out too slowly. Some States and local 
governments opened their assistance programs only last month. Some 
hadn't spent a single dollar by the beginning of June.
  Now that is starting to change. In June, States delivered more than 
$1.5 billion in emergency rental assistance. That money went to help 
nearly 300,000 households, but there are still billions of dollars to 
distribute and millions of families in need.
  We have the tools, and we have the funding. What we need is the time.
  Look, I agree that the eviction moratorium is not a long-term 
solution, but let me be very clear: it is the right short-term action. 
It is how we keep families safely in their homes while States deliver 
emergency aid. It is how we keep families who are starting to recover 
from the worst economic crisis of their lifetimes get back on their 
feet.
  Millions of jobs have been lost, businesses are still shuttered, and 
childcare for too many families is still a patchwork of uncertainty. 
The recovery underway in this country is historic, and it will 
continue, but it has not yet reached every family.
  But the need is not just economic. We are still in the throes of a 
public health emergency that is trending in the wrong direction. Cases 
of COVID-19 are rising. Hospitalizations and deaths are rising. The 
Delta variant is more contagious, threatening to spread faster among 
the half of the country that remains unvaccinated.
  Needlessly evicting families would risk escalating our public health 
crisis. The CDC understood that reality when it issued an eviction 
moratorium in September. The Agency was clear, and I want to quote the 
language they used: ``Housing stability helps protect health.''
  That's right. Research shows that moratoriums aid in reducing 
infections and deaths due to COVID-19. And research also shows that 
when eviction moratoriums expire, there is an associated increase in 
COVID-19 and mortality.
  Yesterday, Congresswoman Cori Bush sent Members of Congress a letter. 
Congresswoman Bush has lived through eviction. She has been unhoused. 
And I want to quote her letter. She said:

       I know firsthand the trauma and devastation that comes with 
     the violence of being evicted, and we have a responsibility 
     to do everything we can to prevent this trauma from being 
     inflicted on our neighbors and communities.

  Cori Bush is exactly right.
  My office has heard from so many people in Massachusetts who are 
terrified about the possibility of losing their homes. I know that each 
of my colleagues here must be hearing these stories. In every State in 
this country there are families sitting around their kitchen table 
right now trying to figure out how to survive a devastating, 
disruptive, and unnecessary eviction.
  Congress has a choice to make. It is a privilege for us to represent 
people, and we have a duty to exercise our power on their behalf. Every 
Senator in this Chamber should be grateful that they have the power 
right now to keep families safe.
  My colleagues understood the stakes in March of 2020, when Congress 
passed the CARES Act eviction moratorium into law. They understood the 
stakes when we provided historic funding for emergency rental 
assistance. I urge them to join me now in continuing this lifesaving 
protection as States distribute assistance to keep renters housed; to 
keep landlords paid; and, most of all, to keep families safe.
  I yield the floor.

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