Cori Bush Calls for Extending COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium by Sleeping on Capitol Steps

Representative Cori Bush (D-MO) spent the weekend sleeping on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building in an effort to pressure her fellow lawmakers to extend the national eviction moratorium. The policy, put in place by the CDC, expired at the end of July and, due to the White House’s interpretation of a recent Supreme Court ruling, could not be extended further without congressional action. As Congress began its annual August recess, Bush has been sleeping outside the Capitol in an attempt to demand attention and action to prevent a looming eviction crisis.

“Many of my Democratic colleagues chose to go on vacation early today rather than staying to vote to keep people in their homes,” Bush wrote in a tweet posted on Friday night with a selfie of her on the steps. “I’ll be sleeping outside the Capitol tonight. We’ve still got work to do.”

Earlier that day, Bush’s pressure campaign was already in effect, including a letter she sent to her Democratic colleagues and an op-ed published in Time magazine. In both the letter and the op-ed, she referenced her own experience with being unhoused, using it to inform the sense of urgency she seeks to communicate to her fellow lawmakers and the broader public.

“I remember what it was like for [me and my two children] to live out of my car,” she wrote in her letter. “I think about how society wanted me to believe that being unhoused was my fault. We have a deeply rooted misconception in our country that unhoused people have done something to deserve their conditions — when the reality is that unhoused people are living the consequences of our government’s failure to secure the basic necessities people need to survive.”

“If Congress does not act now, the fallout of the eviction crisis will undoubtedly set us backwards as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravish our communities,” she wrote, calling for congressional support for H.R. 4791, the Protecting Renters from Evictions Act of 2021. “Extending the federal eviction moratorium as quickly as possible is the least we can do for those in our communities who need our help the most.”

Later Friday, Bush sent another letter announcing her intention to camp out on the steps of the House as part of her campaign to defend the moratorium, inviting other lawmakers to join her. Around 1:00 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, she posted a pic with representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), who both shared messages of support online.

After that first night, Bush kept the pressure up on July 31, the day the moratorium expired. She specifically called on Democratic leadership — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and President Joe Biden — to take action, emphasizing that Democratic control of the White House and both chambers of Congress was an asset in this battle.

Meanwhile, more lawmakers showed up to support her as Saturday progressed. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) showed up to make clear Bush has an ally in the Senate. Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) made an appearance; Bush said he had offered that he was willing to reconvene the Rules Committee, which Bush said was a necessary step to push any legislation forward. And Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was there to stand alongside Bush and Pressley in front of a crowd of supporters.

“This is a defining moment for Democrats and how we lead when we’re elected,” Bush wrote as midnight neared on Saturday. “We have until midnight to act right now.” Around 2:00 a.m. Sunday she took to Twitter again to reiterate her calls for the House to reconvene since the moratorium had officially expired. But even if the moratorium had expired, Bush’s protest outside the Capitol had not.

On Sunday, AOC was there, as was Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), with an umbrella. Bush continued to urge action as she said her staff had started to hear about evictions already taking place.

“There are evictions happening right now. Our team has heard that there have already been thousands today,” she wrote in a tweet posted Sunday evening. “People are being forcibly removed from their homes RIGHT NOW. There are potentially millions more to come. Has your member of Congress said anything about it?”

Bush was still there on Monday morning, posting in an early tweet, “This morning felt cold, like the wind was blowing straight through my sleeping bag. Since Friday — when some colleagues chose early vacation over voting to prevent evictions — we’ve been at the Capitol. It’s an eviction emergency. Our people need an eviction moratorium. Now.”

What’s next for a moratorium as Bush keeps the pressure on? Well, after the expiration of the partial moratorium in the CARES Act, the moratorium was put in place last year by the CDC. As NPR reported, the move from the Trump administration came last September, designed to stop evictions of people impacted by the financial fallout of the pandemic and was originally set to last until the end of 2020. It was extended to the end of January, then through March, and then again until the end of June. Near the end of June, CDC director Rachelle Walensky announced the moratorium would be extended to the end of July — the final intended extension.

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That’s also about when the Supreme Court got involved. In a case seeking to lift the moratorium, as CNN reported, SCOTUS justices left it in place. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing in a concurring opinion, indicated that he only voted to leave it in place on the grounds that it would be ending soon and argued that any further extension would require new congressional action, not just a CDC decree.

As the AP reported, the Biden administration took that part of the decision seriously, calling on Congress to take action given that further executive branch actions could likely be successfully challenged in court — which brings us back to Bush and her three nights on the steps of the Capitol, pushing for congressional action.

The possibility for that congressional action is uncertain, though. Speaker Pelosi tweeted Saturday that despite her “relentless” campaign to extend the moratorium, congressional Republicans had blocked Democratic efforts to do so. A day earlier, she had said in remarks, “Really, we only learned of this yesterday.”

On Sunday, Pelosi asserted that the CDC does have the power to extend the moratorium, a take seemingly at odds with the White House’s interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling.

Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Cori Bush: Can She Bring the Movement for Black Lives to Congress?

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue