Political Quotes

“I rise to talk about the inclusion of critical protections for renters in the bill before us today. These include $25 billion in emergency rental assistance and an extension of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's nationwide eviction moratorium through January 31, 2021. This bill does not include all that I have been calling for since this crisis began, nor is it the bill I would have written on my own, but it is a long overdue and essential start on the help families urgently need to stay or become safely and stably housed right now. And it is arriving as millions of renters across the country are on the precipice of an entirely preventable eviction crisis. One in five renters are behind on rent right now. For renters in households with children, this number is one in four, and for Black renters, the rate is nearly one in three. Economist Mark Zandi estimates that renters are $70 billion behind on rent, with average back rent of nearly $6,000. With millions of families potentially facing eviction or displacement, without this bill, the current CDC eviction moratorium would have expired on December 31, making for a very unhappy new year for many renters across the country. A wave of evictions in the middle of this pandemic will set back millions of families, interrupt jobs and educations, and exacerbate inequality in this country. It will also make it harder to keep people healthy and get the virus under control.…”