Fabienne Kinzelmann from Washington, DC
Some disasters run like a car accident in slow motion. The dispute in the US Congress over the eviction of defaulting tenants was one of those.
In June the US Supreme Court, the highest court in the country, spoke out against an extension of the “Eviction Moratorium”. This decree from the US Disease Agency CDC was intended to protect defaulting tenants from eviction in the pandemic. As a result, eleven million people in the United States were threatened with this fate from August onwards. Still, the government and Congress did: nothing.
Eleven million were threatened with eviction
It was only two days before the deadline that the topic made it back on the agenda. The representatives in Washington discussed, could not agree – and went on Friday evening on their one-month summer break.
“Many of my Democratic colleagues have chosen to go on vacation earlier today instead of staying to vote so people can stay in their homes,” tweeted the Missouri MP, who has only been in the House of Representatives this year. She announced, “I’m going to sleep in front of the Capitol tonight. We still have a lot of work to do. “
Protest camp with no sleep
And Bush kept his word. Party colleagues and visitors joined her – only it was not actually allowed to sleep, otherwise the Capitol police would have put an end to the protest camp. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (81) came by, as did Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (70) and Vice President Kamala Harris (56).
Among the prominent supporters was Democrat icon Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (31). On Monday evening she sat on the stairs at the Capitol for hours. Those who joined could hear “AOC” talk about their start in Washington – completely broke and unable to afford the rent for an apartment.
For Ocasio-Cortez, too, the fight for an eviction moratorium was a personal concern. But for no one he was as personal as for Cori Bush.
Live in the car with the kids
Before she entered Congress, she was evicted several times. “I know what it is like to be displaced and to have to live out of my car with my two babies,” said the mother of two and a trained nurse on Saturday in an interview. “Even as a member of parliament, I do not want to remain silent about this.”
She lost her apartment three times; When she was 20, her landlord kicked her out after a brutal argument with her boyfriend. At 29, because she could no longer pay her rent while training to be a nurse. Most recently in 2015 after becoming politically active.
Evictions suspended again
After five days, Joe Biden gave in. Forced evictions are suspended until October in all parts of the country where the number of corona infections is rising rapidly.
The relief, the emotion: You could see Cori Bush. “Today we moved mountains,” she tweeted with relief.
It is the preliminary career highlight of the MPs, who only became politicized by the police violence during the riots in Ferguson (Missouri) in 2014. In next year’s mid-term elections, she will have to defend her seat in the House of Representatives – then no longer as a newcomer, but as a national figure.