An eleventh-hour bid in Congress to extend the federal pandemic eviction moratorium failed Friday as thousands of people may soon face the process of being forced from their homes.
The fledgling effort, which came ahead of the ban's expected expiration Saturday, faltered amid divisions in the House. About a dozen House Democrats opposed the measure and were unwilling to budge, two senior Democratic aides told NBC News.
"Definitely don't have the votes," one leadership aide said.
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House Speaker Nancy Nancy Pelosi and the measure's sponsor, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., were at odds Friday over whether to hold a vote and force members to make their positions publicly known.
Waters wanted a vote, which would have allowed progressive activists to blame specific Democratic lawmakers for its failure, while Pelosi didn't want to expose some of her caucus members to the wrath of the base, according to the second aide.
Ultimately, the effort died when Majority Leader Steny Hoyer tried to pass the measure by unanimous consent — a process that doesn't require a vote — and a Republican member objected. Congress is now leaving town, with the House not expected back in until Sept. 20.
The White House previously said that a recent court ruling meant the administration lacks the power to extend the moratorium and pushed responsibility to Congress.
Ahead of Hoyer's procedural move, President Joe Biden released a statement that appeared to concede defeat Friday evening.
"I call on all state and local governments to take all possible steps to immediately disburse these funds given the imminent ending of the CDC eviction moratorium," Biden said in a statement. "Every state and local government must get these funds out to ensure we prevent every eviction we can."
Even if the House had succeeded, it was unlikely to gain support in the Senate.
House Speak Nancy Pelosi, while urging the extension, also explained that the American Rescue Plan passed in December provided more than $46 billion to help renters and housing providers.
"This emergency assistance was accompanied by a moratorium on residential evictions that kept millions of renters stably housed during the pandemic," Pelosi said of the moratorium which ends Saturday. "Of the more than $46 billion provided by Congress, only $3 billion has been distributed to renters by state and local governments. Families must not pay the price for that. Congress must act again."
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Thursday that Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to extend the moratorium for renters, but she said, "Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available."
Only Congress, Psaki added, can make it happen by passing legislation.
"In light of the Supreme Court's ruling, the President calls on Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay," she said in a statement.
The House Rules Committee debated Waters' legislation Friday morning, with Republicans arguing that Democrats were rushing the process and blaming them for not taking action sooner.
"I oppose this rushed partisan legislation for several reasons," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., testified. "First, the bill before us does not provide clear and specific clarification on CDC's authority. It simply extends the CDC's moratorium, based on an authority the courts have ruled does not exist. The reason this bill simply extends the unlawful order is because it was written last night at the last minute, despite the White House and congressional Democrats' full knowledge for over a month that this moratorium would lapse absent congressional action."
Waters, meanwhile, called the situation a "crisis" and stressed that Congress must take immediate action.
"When an emergency occurs, you have to determine what are you going to do with it," she told the Rules Committee. "Is it an emergency enough that you're going to stop families from being put on the sidewalk? Is it an emergency enough that you're going to need to wonder what the hell is going to happen with these children that won't be able to go back to school because they don't even know where they're going to be sleeping?"