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Posted on 08/11/2021 2:05:18 PM PDT by lightman
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the congressional investigative arm, on Aug. 11 for a rush review of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) extended renters’ eviction moratorium.
Toomey wants GAO to determine whether the moratorium recently ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court but extended at the direction of President Joe Biden by the CDC on Aug. 3 is a regulatory rule subject to the Congressional Review Act (CRA).
If the moratorium is subject to CRA, then it could be repealed by a majority vote in the Senate. Toomey has previously used this tactic to force repeal of Obama-era financial regulations on auto and leverage business loans.
Toomey asked Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who manages GAO, to provide a decision on the moratorium not later than Aug. 16.
Rochelle Walensky, CDC’s Director, extended the moratorium that was originally issued by her agency in 2020 but expired on July 31. In doing so on Aug. 3, she claimed protection of public health justified the extension as an emergency action.
If the moratorium is upheld as a public health necessity, it could escape CRA review. But if GAO says the moratorium fits the CRA’s definition of a rule, it could be knocked out by the Senate.
“This moratorium is the right thing to do to keep people in their homes and out of congregate settings where COVID-19 spreads,” Wallensky said in a statement.
“It is imperative that public health authorities act quickly to mitigate such an increase of evictions, which could increase the likelihood of new spikes in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Such mass evictions and the attendant public health consequences would be very difficult to reverse,” she said.
The original moratorium and Wallensky’s extension were issued without the normal rule-making process that includes public comment opportunities.
At the same time as Toomey made public his letter to GAO, he joined with Sen. Roger Marshal (R-Kan.) and Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) in authoring a Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) to enable the CRA review of the CDC moratorium extension.
“The Biden Administration’s executive action banning landlords from collecting rent that is rightfully owed to them goes beyond the CDC’s legal authority,” Marshall said in the statement with Toomey.
“This extended halt in evictions sets a dangerous precedent for government agencies operating outside of their statutory limitations in the future and must be stopped.
“Thoughtless power grabs such as these have rippling consequences and the continued prolonging of the eviction moratorium does more to harm American economic recovery than to help it.”
“The Supreme Court has made it clear—and President Biden himself has confirmed—that CDC does not have the legal authority to unilaterally extend the eviction moratorium,” Burr added in the statement. Burr was referring to Biden’s admission on the same day Wallensky issued the extension that “the bulk of the constitutional scholarship says that it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster.”
Biden said Wallensky went ahead with the extension because by the time opponents would be able to get a court ruling against it, the administration would have distributed an estimated $45 billion in assistance to renters who are behind in their payments.
The original eviction moratorium was allowed to stand by the Supreme Court in a June 29 decision because its expiration was only a few days away. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh in a concurring opinion said the moratorium exceeded the CDC’s authority. Congress needed to expand the agency authority to continue the moratorium, he said. Heritage Foundation judicial analyst Joel Griffith told the House Judiciary Committee during a June 14 hearing that the moratorium was unconstitutional on multiple grounds.
“Moratoria also invoke serious constitutional and legal concerns. They may violate the takings clause of the Fifth and the 14th Amendments, along with the Contract Clause,” Griffith testified.
“The Commerce Clause—upon which the CDC powers are based—does not provide a basis for Congress to prohibit citizens from seeking legal recourse in state courts for enforcement of rental contract provisions,” he said.
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Well this is great, but why not ask for an emergency stay/ ruling by the USSC based on ignoring their decision? Why has no one done that?
We need a court case dealing with the takings clause. It is obvious it is being used for petty tyrants to reward us by giving back a sliver of freedom taken from us illegally to begin with.
Aye.
Freedom was NEVER theirs to “grant”.
What is the optimal way out of this? If there is a mass wave of evictions, that isn’t good for landlords either.
True, but at least they will have been unleashed to effectively deal with deadbeat renters. Can’t believe the courts allowed the moratorium to stand for even a day.
Only Congress may write and pass laws. Look it up. It’s in the US Constitution.
All “laws” written by fat-ass bureaucrats are illegal and must be ignored by the citizens.
As long as bums don’t have to pay they wont. Its not necessarily about not being able to pay and my guess is most will pay rather than be evicted. They might have to go back to work. Sure, not everyone can make millions of Yuen selling paintings to the ChiComs that look like a Kindergartner did it but there are plenty of real jobs. I have no sympathy for them.
Must be a RINO since the excrement flowing out off Arlen Toomey's mouth is much greater volume than a pig.
Well, he is after all the Senator from Goldman Sachs.
The privilege of ignoring Supreme Court rulings was hard-won - do you expect the Senate to just give it back? /s
“whether the moratorium recently ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court”
Ludicrous.
The USSC let the moratorium stand.
Thank Kavanaugh.
“ Biden said Wallensky went ahead with the extension because by the time opponents would be able to get a court ruling against it, the administration would have distributed an estimated $45 billion in assistance to renters who are behind in their payments.”
Yeah…as if the landlords are getting that money.
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