Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3685

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, today is the 1st of the month, and that means the rent is due, but for the 9 million renters who have lost their jobs, they may not be able to pay.

Now, in March, we made sure that the CARES Act included cash assistance, unemployment benefits, and suspensions on evictions and mortgage forbearance to help the people who have been hurt the most by this pandemic. Lots of States and counties have set up their own programs, either subsidies or prohibitions on evictions themselves, but we are now 3 months later, and unemployment benefits stand to expire at the end of this month and moratoriums that allowed families to stay in their homes are ending. Eviction courts are reopening. Think about that. Eviction courts are reopening.

So what we are facing is a ticking timebomb. We are facing the fact that it is true that people got forbearance on their rent or forbearance on their mortgage, but I remember very well in March and April, as I explained to the people of Hawaii, you are getting forbearance not forgiveness, which means you just simply don't have to pay your mortgage or your rent this month. You do have to eventually pay your mortgage or your rent.

So what is going to happen is, for the most economically challenged among us in the United States, they are going to face a huge backpayment at the beginning of August or the beginning of September, and they are going to lose the place they live in.

Now, I am very, very hopeful that cooler heads will prevail and that we will intervene in July and incorporate the legislation Senator Brown is leading because the rent is going to be due, and we are going to-- just as we faced this pandemic square in the eyes, we are going to be facing a massive eviction crisis. We have to take action.

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