Days after a national eviction moratorium expired, the Biden administration on Tuesday issued a new, more limited freeze that remains in effect through Oct. 3, NPR reported. Like the previous order, the two-month moratorium issued Tuesday comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new ban on evictions covers parts of the United States that are experiencing what the CDC calls "substantial" and "high" spread of the coronavirus. As of Tuesday afternoon, that's the vast majority of U.S. counties. The order, which cites the rise of the delta variant, says: "Without this Order, evictions in these [higher transmission] areas would likely exacerbate the increase in cases." The federal ban expired Saturday night, affecting millions of Americans who had the potential to be removed from their homes if they had fallen behind on rent. Since that moratorium's expiration, progressives had pressured the Biden administration to extend the pause on evictions. The administration previously said it didn't have the legal authority to issue a such a measure. The new order could face legal challenges. Gene Sperling, who oversees the White House's rollout of COVID-19 relief, told reporters on Monday that Biden had "quadruple-checked" whether he had the legal grounds to extend the moratorium unilaterally but said ultimately his hands were tied by a Supreme Court ruling that blocked the CDC from extending its past moratorium beyond the end of July. A last-minute effort by Congress to extend the ban failed.
