The CDC has turned down a request from US
President Joe Biden to issue a scaled-down pandemic-related moratorium on
eviction of tenants, the White House said on Monday.

The reason that CDC gave while turning down
the request was a lack of legal authority to take the action, Reuters reported.

 The
previous such eviction ban issued by the CDC expired on Saturday midnight with
Congress failing to renew it as Biden had asked. House of Representatives
Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier on Monday had asked Biden to have his
administration renew the ban without congressional action.

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White House said that the President has not
given up on the cause as he asked officials to look at any potential authority
to reinstate.

“The president has not given up the
option of legal action. He has asked his team to kick the tires … and look at
every authority, every option we have to keep more people in their homes,”
Reuters quoted White House press secretary Jen Psaki as saying.

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Last month, a Supreme Court opinion mandated
that a congressional approval would be required to impose a new moratorium.

The CDC declined to comment Monday on the
White House statement, Reuters reported.

In a letter to fellow House Democrats earlier
in the day, House Speaker Pelosi urged the Biden administration to renew the
eviction ban without congressional action. Pelosi told lawmakers such an
extension would provide more time to speed distribution of $46.5 billion
already allocated by Congress for rental relief. Only about $3 billion of that
sum has been distributed.

Pelosi said she was happy with the White House
effort to try to find legal authority by the CDC or other authorities to extend
the ban.

 “For the good of families on the verge of
eviction, my Democratic House colleagues and I are hopeful that this initiative
to extend the moratorium will be successful as soon as possible,” Pelosi
said, according to Reuters.