Brown Condemns The GOP For Holding Up Rental Assistance And Relief For Millions Of Renters and Homeowners
Senator Took To The Floor Today To Demand Action For The Millions Of People Struggling To Pay Their Rent And Bills Or At Risk Of Losing Their Homes. Brown Called On His Colleagues To Not Let This Public Health Crisis Turn Into An Eviction Crisis
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) – Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs today continued his push for more rental assistance and to urge his colleagues to help the for the millions of people struggling to pay their rent and bills or at risk of losing their homes.
“The Trump Administration has pretty much given up – but we can’t. We need to do our jobs. We need to show leadership where the president has failed. That means fighting the health crisis and the economic crisis – we can’t do one without the other. Right now, millions of Americans are in danger of losing their homes – of being evicted or having their house foreclosed on. The last thing we need in the middle of a public health crisis is families being turned out on the streets,” said Brown. “Without emergency rental assistance, those families could find themselves on the street, with their lives turned upside down, in the middle of a pandemic. People are tired of the lack of action and the lack of accountability. They’re tired of being betrayed by the leader who is supposed to look out for them. They’re tired of feeling like no one is on their side. We’re supposed to be the greatest country on earth – we should act like it. The American people should not have to fend for themselves in the middle of a once-in-a-generation crisis. It’s time for us to step up. It’s time to lead where the president has failed. It’s time for Leader McConnell to let us do our jobs.”
Senator Brown has made it a priority to ensure families and individuals can stay in their homes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He recently joined Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Congressman Denny Heck (D-WA) in introducing the Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act of 2020, legislation that would authorize $100 billion for an emergency rental assistance program to help renters stay housed during and after the pandemic. He is also a cosponsor of Senator Warren’s (D-MA) Protecting Renters from Eviction And Fees Act which would extend federal eviction moratoriums to March 27, 2021, one year after the date of enactment of the CARES Act, and expands the moratorium to cover substantially all renters. Senator Brown also joined Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) in introducing the Coronavirus Housing Counseling Improvement Act to provide $700 million in funding for housing counselors to help homeowners and renters navigate their housing options and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) in proposing a $75 billion Housing Assistance Fund to help homeowners stay in their homes. Brown will continue his fight to ensure more protections for renters and homeowners in future relief packages.
Brown’s remarks on the Senate Floor, as prepared for delivery, are below:
Mr./Madame President,
We are in the middle of a crisis unlike anything any of us have ever lived through.
Every single day we hear about hundreds or thousands more Americans dying. That’s become our new normal.
These are our sisters, our brothers, our parents, our friends and neighbors.
And the president of the United States has stopped even pretending to care.
It’s not his rich friends who are dying – it’s our grandparents in nursing homes, it’s Black and brown workers who caught the virus on the job.
The Trump Administration has pretty much given up – but we can’t. We need to do our jobs. We need to show leadership where the president has failed.
That means fighting the health crisis and the economic crisis – we can’t do one without the other.
Right now, millions of Americans are in danger of losing their homes – of being evicted, or having their house foreclosed on.
The last thing we need in the middle of a public health crisis is families being turned out on the streets.
We already had a housing crisis in this country before the coronavirus hit.
Many of the professions we’re now recognizing as “essential” don’t pay enough to afford housing.
A quarter of all renters were paying half their incomes for housing, leaving them one emergency away from the bottom falling out from under them.
Now we’re seeing millions of people all have those emergencies at once.
They’re facing impossible choices – between rent and groceries, or prescriptions, or draining their savings, or going to a payday lender.
And some people don’t have any choice at all – their only option is eviction.
In the CARES Act, we passed an emergency expansion of unemployment insurance. We provided funding for the most immediate needs of housing and homeless service organizations. And we put a temporary moratorium on evictions and foreclosures for renters and homeowners in properties with a federally-backed loan, as well as for renters receiving federal assistance.
This moratorium was an important step, but it doesn’t cover everyone. These protections only reach about 65 percent of homeowners and only about 28 percent of renters.
We’re also facing two huge cliffs at the end of the month: the end of the eviction moratorium, and the end of the additional $600 a week in UI benefits.
And the president and Leader McConnell refuse to extend any of it.
For all of those renters who had been protected from eviction by the CARES Act, back rent will suddenly be due. The same goes for the millions who aren’t protected under the CARES Act, but got relief from a temporary state or local moratorium or court closure.
With tens of millions of people filing for unemployment, and the president still refusing to lead and get this virus under control, we know people still need it.
They still need help paying the rent, they still need help making mortgage payments, they still need protecting from evictions and foreclosures.
More than 40 percent of Black and Latinx renters report that they’re unlikely to be able to make their next payment.
That’s why I introduced, and 39 of my colleagues have cosponsored, the Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act.
It would provide $100 billion for emergency rental assistance – including help with missed rent and utility bills.
It already passed the House – twice.
The House included it in the Heroes Act they passed a month ago.
But it is sitting on the Majority Leader’s desk collecting dust.
And for millions of families, the bills keep coming and the clock keeps ticking and the stress keeps mounting. And now a second round of layoffs are starting because this President refuses to lead and get this virus under control.
They’re reopening eviction courts all over the country. In Columbus, in my state, they opened the convention center to process evictions.
Reflect on that for a moment – tens of millions people have lost their jobs, and we’re using arenas as eviction courts.
Before this pandemic, President Trump and his wealthy cabinet members didn’t realize or didn’t care that behind the rosy stock market data, this economy was already broken for millions of workers – and for Black and brown workers, it never worked to begin with.
And now the Trump Administration either doesn’t realize or doesn’t care that the bottom is falling out for those families.
Without emergency rental assistance, those families could find themselves on the street, with their lives turned upside down, in the middle of a pandemic.
People are tired of the lack of action and the lack of accountability.
They’re tired of being betrayed by the leader who is supposed to look out for them.
They’re tired of feeling like no one is on their side.
We’re supposed to be the greatest country on earth – we should act like it. The American people should not have to fend for themselves in the middle of a once-in-a-generation crisis.
It’s time for us to step up. It’s time to lead where the president has failed. It’s time for Leader McConnell to let us do our jobs.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3685, The Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act of 2020. I ask that the bill be considered read three times and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.
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