Another Republican President, Another Recession.

Americans are increasingly fearful about inflation. The University of Michigan’s monthly gauge of consumer sentiment declined last month, a result of consumers’ increasing concern about rapidly rising prices. A PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll published this month found that Americans were more worried about inflation than covid-19 even before cases mushroomed in the past two weeks.

For months, Democratic politicos have mostly pooh-poohed the surge of inflation driving up the cost of housing, cars, groceries and more. On Monday,President Biden called the increases most likely “temporary,” a short-term byproduct of the reopening of the economy and supply bottlenecks related to the covid-19 shutdowns. Is that true? Probably. Is it a good response? No. Vague assurances that amount to “trust us, we know what we are doing” rarely calm anyone.

And this subdued Democratic response has given Republicans an opening for fearmongering politics. They’re citing the specter of “Bidenflation” to derail the progressive agenda.

The issue, Republicans say, isn’t pandemic-induced shortages of semiconductors or bottlenecks in the labor supply. It’s irresponsible federal spending past and possibly future — what they call overly generous unemployment benefits, climate-related spending, and all those Biden plans to beef up the country’s human and physical infrastructure after decades of neglect.

“Irresponsible,” says Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). “Everywhere we look, prices are rising,” claims fellow Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
“Bidenflation is growing faster than paychecks,” proclaimed a press release from the GOPmembers of the House Ways and Means Committee.
This is hypocrisy to the millionth degree. Republicans said none of this when President Donald Trump ran up the federal deficit to give millionaires and billionaires a tax cut in 2017.

But today, these tactics might be effective. Americans hateinflation. Many fear that inflation hammers their standard of living. (Of course, inflation also has benefits, such as making it effectively easier to pay off money previously borrowed at fixed interest rates — something that anyone with a mortgage or student loan bills is likely to find useful.)

Historically, as Timothy Noah noted last week in the New Republic, voters have moved to the right amid inflation conditions. During past inflationary periods, he wrote, legislation was passed making it harder for workers to unionize, as were anti-tax, pro-austerity initiatives such as California’s Proposition 13, which limited property tax increases. President Ronald Reagan ushered in a conservative movement after being elected during a period of high inflation.

All this is why it is vital for Democrats to come up with a better response to Republican demagoguing. And after too many tepid and less-than-convincing takes, it seems they finally have a road map.

A report Wednesday from Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, argues that Democratic investment and spending plans will grow the nation’s workforce and economy. Failure to pass both an infrastructure package and the reconciliation bill that Democrats are moving forward would “diminish the economy’s prospects,” a point that Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) was expected to play up.

Zandi attacks the Republican grandstanding on inflation head-on, pointing out that employment remains significantly below pre-shutdown levels, unemployment remains relatively high, and Democrats are asking for increased taxes on the wealthy and corporations. What about the child tax credits that started paying out this month? They’ll offer “long-term economic benefits” to both families and the broader economy.

In fact, Zandi says, parts of the Democratic agenda, such as initiatives to get more control over the cost of prescription drugs and to spend money on increasing the housing supply for lower-income Americans, would bring prices down — and ultimately reduce the cost of living for many Americans.

Republicans don’t want you to think about any of that. Heck, they are so committed to easing life for the wealthy while letting the rest of us stew that they’ve kiboshed a plan to include increased funding for the IRS in the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Such funds could be used to crack down on wealthy tax cheats and bring in legally owed revenue, improving the bottom line without raising taxes. That doesn’t exactly scream concern about inflation and the deficit.

Biden used some of this info at his CNN Town Hall on Thursday night, pointing out that his plans will ultimately “reduce inflation.” But he’s still not punching hard enough.Democrats need to remember that the best defense is a good offense.

Yes, continue to say the inflationary surge is almost certainly a blip, and that if it turns out otherwise they’re prepared to address it. But first, middle and last, remind voters that Republicans are howling about inflation not because they are worried but because they want to distract us from their true agenda, which is ensuring the wealthy continue to benefit from low taxes, while stopping Democrats from enacting their economic program — no matter the cost to the rest of us.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans reached a deal with Democrats on Wednesday over major outstanding issues in a $1 trillion infrastructure package, ready to begin consideration of a key part of President Joe Biden’s agenda. An evening test vote was possible.

Lead GOP negotiator Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio made the announcement at the Capitol, flanked by four other Republican senators who have been in talks with Democrats and the White House on the bipartisan package.

“We now have an agreement on the major issues,” Portman said. “We are prepared to move forward.”

Asked about the agreement during a tour of a truck plant in Pennsylvania, Biden expressed approval.

“I feel confident about it,” he said.

For days, senators and the White House have worked to salvage the bipartisan deal, a key part of Biden’s agenda.

The outcome will set the stage for the next debate over Biden’s much more ambitious $3.5 trillion spending package, a strictly partisan pursuit of far-reaching programs and services including child care, tax breaks and health care that touch almost every corner of American life, and that Republicans strongly oppose.



Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer opened the Senate on Wednesday announcing a possible test vote on the bipartisan package in the evening. It will require 60 votes in the evenly split 50-50 Senate to proceed to consideration, meaning support from both parties. That would launch a potentially long process to consider the bill, and any possible amendments.

Republican senators met Wednesday morning with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, who appears to have given his nod to proceed. Portman said McConnell “all along has been encouraging our efforts.”

Sen. Krysten Sinema of Arizona, a lead Democratic negotiator, said she expected the package would have enough support to move forward.

Sinema said she spoke with Biden Wednesday and he was “very excited” to have an agreement.

Democrats, who have slim control of the House and Senate, face a timeline to act on what would be some of the most substantial pieces of legislation in years.

The bipartisan package includes about $600 billion in new spending on highways, bridges, transit, broadband, water systems and other public works projects.

Filling in the details has become a month-long exercise ever since the senators struck an agreement with Biden more than a month ago over the broad framework. There remains work to do as they draft the legislative text.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who has been central to talks, said, “That doesn’t mean every ‘t’ is crossed, every ‘i’ dotted, but on the major issues we are there.”

Republican senators sparred at their closed-door lunch Tuesday, one side arguing against doing anything that would smooth the way for the Democrats’ broader bill, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting. Others spoke in favor of the bipartisan package.

A recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC found 8 in 10 Americans favor some increased infrastructure spending.

House Democrats have their own transportation bill, which includes much more spending to address rail transit, electric vehicles and other strategies to counter climate change.

At a private meeting of House Democrats on Tuesday, Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, called the Senate’s bipartisan measure complete “crap,” according to two Democrats who attended the session and spoke on condition of anonymity to describe it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not commit to supporting the bipartisan package until she sees the details, but said Wednesday she’s “rooting for it.”

Pelosi said, “I very much want it to pass.”

Senators in the bipartisan group have been huddling privately for weeks. The group includes 10 core negotiators, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, but has swelled at times to 22.

Transit funding has remained a stubborn dispute, as Republican senators are wary of formalizing what has been a typical formula for the Highway Trust Fund allotting around 80% for highways and 20% for transit.

Most Republican senators come from rural states where highways dominate and public transit is scarce, while Democrats view transit as a priority for cities and a key to easing congesting and fighting climate change. Democrats don’t want to see the formula dip below its typical threshold.

Expanding access to broadband. which has become ever more vital for households during the coronavirus pandemic, sparked a new debate. Republicans pushed back against imposing regulations on internet service providers in a program that helps low-income people pay for service.

Sinema said transit and broadband were the remaining issues being finished up Wednesday.

Democrats also have been insisting on a prevailing-wage requirement, not just for existing public works programs but also for building new roads, bridges, broadband and other infrastructure, but it’s not clear that will make the final package.

Still unclear is how to pay for the bipartisan package after Democrats rejected a plan to bring in funds by hiking the gas tax drivers pay at the pump and Republicans dashed a plan to boost the IRS to go after tax scofflaws.

Funding could come from repurposing COVID relief aid, reversing a Trump-era pharmaceutical rebate and other streams. It’s possible the final deal could run into political trouble if it doesn’t pass muster as fully paid for when the Congressional Budget Office assesses the details.

Portman said the package will be “more than paid for.”

Meanwhile, Democrats are readying the broader $3.5 trillion package that is being considered under budget rules that allow passage with 51 senators in the split Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to break a tie. It would be paid for by increasing the corporate tax rate and the tax rate on Americans earning more than $400,000 a year.

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Biden welcomed the accord as one that would show America can “do big things.” It includes the most significant long-term investments in nearly a century, he said, on par with building the transcontinental railroad or the Interstate highway system.

“This deal signals to the world that our democracy can function,” Biden said ahead of the vote Wednesday night. “We will once again transform America and propel us into the future.”

After weeks of stop-and-go negotiations, the rare bipartisan showing on a 67-32 vote to start formal Senate consideration showed the high interest among senators in the infrastructure package. But it’s unclear if enough Republicans will eventually join Democrats to support final passage.

Senate rules require 60 votes in the evenly split 50-50 chamber to proceed for consideration and ultimately pass this bill, meaning support from both parties.




The outcome will set the stage for the next debate over Biden’s much more ambitious $3.5 trillion spending package, a strictly partisan pursuit of far-reaching programs and services including child care, tax breaks and health care that touch almost every corner of American life. Republicans strongly oppose that bill, which would require a simple majority, and may try to stop both.

Lead GOP negotiator Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio announced the bipartisan group’s agreement on the $1 trillion package earlier Wednesday at the Capitol, flanked by four other Republican senators who had been in talks with Democrats and the White House.

After voting, Portman said the outcome showed that bipartisanship in Washington can work and he believed GOP support would only grow. “That’s pretty darn good for a start,” he said.

That group had labored with the White House to salvage the deal, a first part of Biden’s big infrastructure agenda. Swelling to more than 700 pages, the bill includes $550 billion in new spending for public works projects.

In all, 17 Republican senators joined the Democrats in voting to launch the debate, but most remained skeptical. The GOP senators were given a thick binder of briefing materials during a private lunch, but they asked many questions and wanted more details.

According to a 57-page GOP summary obtained by The Associated Press, the five-year spending package would be paid for by tapping $205 billion in unspent COVID-19 relief aid and $53 billion in unemployment insurance aid some states have halted. It also relies on economic growth to bring in $56 billion, and other measures.

Giving Wednesday night’s vote a boost, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell announced late in the day he would vote to proceed, though whether he will support the final bill remains uncertain. The Republican negotiators met with McConnell earlier Wednesday and Portman said the leader “all along has been encouraging our efforts.”

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, a lead Democratic negotiator who talks often with Republicans also spoke with Biden on Wednesday and said the she hoped the results showed “our government can work.”

Democrats, who have slim control of the House and Senate, face a timeline to act on what would be some of the most substantial pieces of legislation in years.

Filling in the details has become a month-long exercise ever since a bipartisan group of senators struck an agreement with Biden in June over the broad framework.

The new spending in the package dropped from about $600 billion to $550 billion, senators said, as money was eliminated for a public-private infrastructure bank and was reduced in other categories, including transit.

The package still includes $110 billion for highways, $65 billion for broadband and $73 billion to modernize the nation’s electric grid, according a White House fact sheet.

Additionally, there’s $25 billion for airports, $55 billion for waterworks and more than $50 billion to bolster infrastructure against cyberattacks and climate change. There’s also $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging stations.

Paying for the package has been a slog throughout the talks after Democrats rejected a plan to bring in funds by hiking the gas tax drivers pay at the pump and Republicans dashed an effort to boost the IRS to go after tax scofflaws.

Along with repurposing the COVID-19 relief and unemployment aid, other revenue would come from the sale of broadcast spectrum, reinstating fees that chemical companies used to pay for cleaning up the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites and drawing $49 billion from reversing a Trump-era pharmaceutical rebate, among other sources.

The final deal could run into political trouble if it doesn’t pass muster as fully paid for when the Congressional Budget Office assesses the details. But Portman said the package will be “more than paid for.”

House Democrats have their own transportation bill, which includes much more spending to address rail transit, electric vehicles and other strategies to counter climate change.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not commit to supporting the package until she sees the details, but said Wednesday she’s “rooting for it.”

Pelosi said, “I very much want it to pass.”

A recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC found 8 in 10 Americans favor some increased infrastructure spending.

Senators in the bipartisan group have been huddling privately for months. The group includes 10 core negotiators, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, but has swelled at times to 22.

Transit funding has remained a stubborn dispute, as most Republican senators come from rural states where highways dominate and public transit is scarce, while Democrats view transit as a priority for cities and a key to easing congesting and fighting climate change.

Expanding access to broadband. which has become ever more vital for households during the coronavirus pandemic, sparked a new debate. Republicans pushed back against imposing regulations on internet service providers in a program that helps low-income people pay for service.

Meanwhile, Democrats are readying the broader $3.5 trillion package that is being considered under budget rules that allow passage with 51 senators in the split Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to break a tie. It would be paid for by increasing the corporate tax rate and the tax rate on Americans earning more than $400,000 a year.

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BOSTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Thursday it will allow a nationwide ban on evictions to expire Saturday, arguing that its hands are tied after the Supreme Court signaled it would only be extended until the end of the month.

The White House said President Joe Biden would have liked to extend the federal eviction moratorium due to spread of the highly contagious delta variant. Instead, Biden called on “Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay.”

The moratorium was put in place last September by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Given the recent spread of the delta variant, including among those Americans both most likely to face evictions and lacking vaccinations, President Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to further extend this eviction moratorium to protect renters at this moment of heightened vulnerability,” the White House said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available.”

The court mustered a bare 5-4 majority last month, to allow the eviction ban to continue through the end of July. One of those in the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, made clear he would block any additional extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”

By the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

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Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in June this would be the last time the moratorium would be extended when she set the deadline for July 31. It was initially put in place to prevent further spread of COVID-19 by people put out on the streets and into shelters.

Housing advocates and some lawmakers have called for the moratorium to be extended due to the increase in coronavirus cases and the fact so little rental assistance has been distributed.

Congress has allocated nearly $47 billion in rental assistance that is supposed to go to help tenants pay off months of back rent. But so far, only about $3 billion of the first tranche of $25 billion has been distributed through June by states and localities. Some states like New York have distributed almost nothing, while several have only approved a few million dollars.

“The confluence of the surging delta variant with 6.5 million families behind on rent and at risk of eviction when the moratorium expires demands immediate action,” Diane Yentel, executive director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said.

“The public health necessity of extended protections for renters is obvious. If federal court cases made a broad extension impossible, the Biden administration should implement all possible alternatives, including a more limited moratorium on federally backed properties.”

The trouble getting rental assistance to those who need it has prompted the Biden administration to hold several events in the past month aimed at pressuring states and cities to increase their distribution, coax landlords to participate and make it easier for tenants to get money directly.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta also has released an open letter to state courts around the country encouraging them to pursue measures that would keep eviction cases out of the courts. On Wednesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled a tool that allows tenants to find information about rental assistance in their area.

Despite these efforts, some Democratic lawmakers had demanded the administration extend the moratorium.

“This pandemic is not behind us, and our federal housing policies should reflect that stark reality. With the United States facing the most severe eviction crisis in its history, our local and state governments still need more time to distribute critical rental assistance to help keep a roof over the heads of our constituents,” Democratic U.S. Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Jimmy Gomez of California and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts said in a joint statement.

But landlords, who have opposed the moratorium and challenged it repeatedly in court, were against any extension. They have argued the focus should be on speeding up the distribution of rental assistance.

This week, the National Apartment Association and several others this week filed a federal lawsuit asking for $26 billion in damages due to the impact of the moratorium.

The NAA “has long held that eviction moratoria are fundamentally flawed policies, leaving renters saddled with insurmountable debt and rental housing providers unfairly holding the bag despite unprecedented efforts to keep their residents housed over the past 18 months,” Bob Pinnegar, the president and CEO of the NAA, said in a statement.

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NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — Christina Darling finally replaced her 2006 Chevrolet Equinox after it broke down several times while picking her children up from day care. But the 31-year-old mother of two was struggling to keep up with the car payments.

Brianne Walker desperately wanted to take her three children and two siblings camping for the first time but wasn’t sure how she could pay for it. After all, she was behind on her rent, and day care and grocery costs were adding up.

Then, the two women from New Hampshire got a surprise in their bank accounts this month. They qualified for the expanded child tax credit, part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Families on average are getting $423 this month; the Treasury Department estimates that 35.2 million families received payments in July.

“The additional money does help alleviate the pressure,” said Walker, 29, who took custody of her two siblings last year after her mother overdosed. The $800 credit will help make up for losses she incurred after quitting a kitchen design job to care for the five youngsters, ages 3 to 19.



Biden increased the amounts going to families and expanded it to include those whose income is so little they don’t owe taxes. The benefits begin to phase out at incomes of $75,000 for individuals, $112,500 for heads of household and $150,000 for married couples. Families with incomes up to $200,000 for individuals and $400,000 for married couples can still receive the previous $2,000 credit.

In the past, eligible families got a credit after filing their taxes — either as a lump sum payment or a credit against taxes owed. But now six months of payments are being advanced monthly through the end of the year. A recipient receives the second half when they file their taxes. The credit is $3,600 annually for children under age 6 and $3,000 for children ages 6 to 17. Eligible families will receive $300 monthly for each child under 6 and $250 per older child.

Advocates argue the monthly payments make more sense for low-income families.

“One of the problems with the big check in a year, if your car broke six months before, that is a long time to wait,” said Michael Reinke, executive director of the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter, which serves many families making less than $26,000 a year.

“When people have money over a consistent period of time, it’s easier to make sure it’s going to the expenses you really need,” he said. “Sometimes, if you get it all at once, it’s hard to budget.”

Robin McKinney, co-founder and CEO of the CASH Campaign of Maryland, a Baltimore nonprofit organization that helps low-income residents file taxes, said the credit is providing people money in their pockets now, when they need it most.

“We know right now that peoples’ hours are down or they’re still struggling to get back to the same level of income that they had before, and this will create some stability for those families to know that over the next six months that they’re going to be getting this payment,” McKinney said.

If all the money goes out, the expectation is that could significantly reduce poverty — with one study estimating it could cut child poverty by 45%. And it comes at a time when unemployment benefits are being phased out and the federal eviction moratorium is set to expire Saturday.

The payments are also a test case of sorts. Biden ultimately would like to make them permanent — and the impact they have could go a long way to shaping that debate later this year.

“It infuses money into the family home,” said Suzanne Torregano, director of Family Services at Kingsley House in New Orleans, who estimated that 85%-90% of the parents the group serves are getting the monthly payments.

Still, some advocates argue the money may never reach the neediest because their incomes are so low they aren’t required to file a tax return, they don’t have a fixed address or bank account, or don’t have the internet savvy to apply.

“What we are finding is that homeless families … while many of them are eligible for the tax credit, they have significant barriers to obtaining it,” said Larry Seamans, president of FamilyAid Boston, which serves 900 families daily.

“We have some counter-intuitive struggles of families who may be unfamiliar with tax forms, tax laws and the fact that by filing a tax return, you can actually get money to support your family,” Seamans said.

“Many families ... are not on the tax rolls. They now have to find sufficient documentation to prove that they are eligible.”

Families who do receive the credit are mostly spending it on rent, child care and groceries, as well as catching up on cellphone and other bills. For Darling, the $550 she gets will go to car payments, more fresh produce and a babysitter so she can attend Nashua Board of Education meetings. She is running for a seat on the board. Eventually, she hopes to put money aside to save for a home with a yard.

“Every step closer we get to a livable wage is beneficial. That is money that gets turned around and spent on the betterment of my kids and myself,” said Darling, a housing resource coordinator who had been supplementing her $35,000-a-year salary with monthly visits to the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter’s food pantry.

McKinney, who is married with a 5-year-old son and qualifies for the tax credit, is getting $167 a month. She said it’s all going to help pay for child care, which costs $288 a week.

“Right now, it’s out-of-school time because it’s the summer, so people have to pay for camps and babysitting support so that the parents can go to work,” said McKinney, of Columbia, Maryland. “I know a lot of people who are like: ‘This money is coming at just the right time, because this summer is more expensive for me for child care.’”

Many families in higher-income brackets who receive less money are socking it away for things like a family trip, school supplies or Christmas gifts.

Carleigh Steele, who received several hundred dollars, said the money is giving her peace of mind a month after she moved into a house in Baltimore with the help of Habitat for Humanity.

“It’s sitting in my bank account for all the home-buying things that I need, and for the rainy day fund for my house — just to make sure that I can keep myself economically stable,” said Steele, who has a 6-year-old daughter.

Brianne Epps, a mother of four from Jackson, Mississippi, is using the money to pay bills but also to finance her dream of opening a soul food catering business. “It will help me, for one, to promote my catering business — to get that off the ground,” she said.

Molly Vigeant, of East Hartford, Connecticut, a 25-year-old single mother who works as a special needs paraprofessional in a high school, hopes to spend the money to repair or replace her car. But she’s had trouble accessing a portal aimed at helping applicants and hasn’t yet received anything.

“It doesn’t hurt yet,” she said of the delayed payment. “But, it’s a 20-year-old car with over 200,000 miles on it and I make 20 grand a year. A new one is not going to fall from the sky, when your debt-to-income ratio is garbage and you know you can’t finance a car.”

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Maybe Congress can get big things done on behalf of the American people after all. Certainly, that’s the hope after President Biden and a bipartisan Senate negotiating group announced a deal on $550 billion in new infrastructure spending over five years. The deal was quickly followed by a supermajority vote to proceed on debating it, thus showing that the 60-vote minimum to overcome a filibuster is not always an obstacle to action.

Equally encouraging is the content of the proposal, which leans heavily on “hard” infrastructure such as roads and bridges (which get $110 billion of the new money), broadband ($65 billion), airports ($25 billion), water ($55 billion) and the electric grid ($73 billion). There are small but innovative items such as $1 billion to undo damage to communities from past federal highway construction and a much-needed Energy Department study on the full “well to wheels” environmental impact of electric vehicles. Though this can hardly be described as a “Green New Deal,” the measure provides significant funding ($105 billion) for railroads and public transit, along with $15 billion for zero- and low-carbon transportation and the accompanying charging or fueling stations.

Undoubtedly this bill will be no freer of pork-barrel projects or other questionable ideas than many other sprawling compromises of the past. The bill includes $3.5 billion for carbon capture, a technology to remove carbon dioxode from the air and store it underground that has delivered disappointing results so far. Even more dubious are lawmakers’ claims that the bill will not add significantly to the deficit. It promises to reprogram $205 billion of unspent money from previous covid relief legislation — a relatively solid source of funding. The same cannot be said for the bill’s invocation of $56 billion in extra revenue due to its positive impact on economic growth. Other gimmicky “pay-fors” include reductions in unemployment insurance fraud and “pension smoothing,” which essentially allows companies to contribute less to federally insured pension funds so that they report more taxable income. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimatesthat, under realistic assumptions, the plan is actually only about half paid for.

In that sense, the new agreement is further confirmation that the one thing Republicans and Democrats can occasionally agree on is to offer voters much-needed public goods and adding their cost to the national credit card — rather than ask people to pay upfront with higher taxes. Some day, that will have to end. For their part, progressive House Democrats are furious because one of the infrastructure bill’s architects, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), signaled that a $3.5 trillion ″human infrastructure" bill, which progressives had insisted on in return for accepting the physical infrastructure counterpart, must shrink to get her vote, throwing its passage into doubt. More such politics lie ahead.

Amid all the wrangling, and despite the bill’s shortcomings, the point remains: The best should not be the enemy of the good. A partially paid-for measure that upgrades the U.S. infrastructure — and, probably, enhances the economy’s long-term capacity to grow — would be pretty good.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A nationwide eviction moratoriumis set to expire Saturday night after President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress worked furiously but ultimately failed to align on a long-shot strategy to prevent millions of Americans from being forced from their homes during a COVID-19 surge.

More than 3.6 million Americans are at risk of eviction, some in a matter of days, as nearly $47 billion in federal housing aid to the states during the pandemic has been slow to make it into the hands of renters and landlords owed payments. The moratorium expires at midnight.

Tensions mounted late Friday as it became clear there was no resolution in sight. Hours before the ban was set to expire, Biden called on local governments to “take all possible steps” to immediately disburse the funds. Evictions could begin as soon as Monday.

“There can be no excuse for any state or locality not accelerating funds to landlords and tenants that have been hurt during this pandemic,” Biden said in a statement.

“Every state and local government must get these funds out to ensure we prevent every eviction we can,” he said.



The stunning outcome, as the White House and Congress each expected the other to act, exposed a rare divide between the president and his allies on Capitol Hill — one that could have lasting impact as the nation’s renters face widespread evictions.

Biden set off the scramble by announcing he would allow the eviction ban to expire instead of challenging a recent Supreme Court ruling signaling this would be the last deadline. He called on Congress on Thursday to swiftly pass legislation to extend the date.

Racing to respond Friday, Democrats strained to rally the votes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi implored colleagues to pass legislation extending the deadline, calling it a “moral imperative,” to protect renters and also the landlords who are owed compensation.

Congress must “meet the needs of the American people: both the families unable to make rent and those to whom the rent is to be paid,” she said in an overnight letter late Thursday.

But after hours of behind-the-scenes wrangling throughout the day, Democratic lawmakers had questions and could not muster support to extend the ban even a few months. House Republicans objected to an attempt to simply approve an extension by consent, without a formal vote. The Senate may try again Saturday.

Democratic lawmakers were livid at the prospect of evictions in the middle of a surging pandemic.

“Housing is a primary social indicator of health, in and of itself, even absent COVID,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. “A mass eviction in the United States does represent a public health crisis unto itself.”

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the Financial Services Committee chair who wrote the emergency bill, said House leaders should have held the vote, even if it failed, to show Americans they were trying to solve the problem.

“Is it emergency enough that you’re going to stop families from being put on the street?” Waters testified at a hearing Friday morning urging her colleagues to act. “What the hell is going to happen to these children?”

But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the top Republican on another panel handling the issue, said the Democrats’ bill was rushed.

“This is not the way to legislate,” she said.

The ban was initially put in place to prevent further spread of COVID-19 by people put out on the streets and into shelters.

Congress pushed nearly $47 billion to the states earlier in the COVID-19 crisis to shore up landlords and renters as workplaces shut down and many people were suddenly out of work.

But lawmakers said state governments have been slow to distribute the money. On Friday, they said only some $3 billion has been spent.

By the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

Some places are likely to see spikes in evictions starting Monday, while other jurisdictions will see an increase in court filings that will lead to evictions over several months.

Biden said Thursday that the administration’s hands are tied after the Supreme Court signaled the moratorium would only be extended until the end of the month.

At the White House, deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration backs the congressional effort “to extend the eviction moratorium to protect these vulnerable renters and their families.”

The White House has been clear that Biden would have liked to extend the federal eviction moratorium because of the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. But there were also concerns that challenging the court could lead to a ruling restricting the administration’s ability to respond to future public health crises.

The administration is trying to keep renters in place through other means. It released more than $1.5 billion in rental assistance in June, which helped nearly 300,000 households. Biden on Thursday asked the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs to extend their eviction moratoriums on households living in federally insured, single-family homes. In a statement late Friday, the agencies announced an extension of the foreclosure-related ban through the end of September.

On a 5-4 vote last month, the Supreme Court allowed the broad eviction ban to continue through the end of July. One of those in the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, made clear he would block any additional extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”

Aides to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, the chair of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, said the two were working on legislation to extend the moratorium and were asking Republicans not to block it.

“The public health necessity of extended protections for renters is obvious,” said Diane Yentel, executive director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “If federal court cases made a broad extension impossible, the Biden administration should implement all possible alternatives, including a more limited moratorium on federally backed properties.”

Landlords, who have opposed the moratorium and challenged it repeatedly in court, are against any extension. They, too, are arguing for speeding up the distribution of rental assistance.

The National Apartment Association and several others this week filed a federal lawsuit asking for $26 billion in damages because of the impact of the moratorium.

“Any extension of the eviction moratorium equates to an unfunded government mandate that forces housing providers to deliver a costly service without compensation and saddles renters with insurmountable debt,” association president and CEO Bob Pinnegar said, adding that the current crisis highlights a need for more affordable housing.

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The Biden administration announced a temporary ban on evictions across most of the country on Tuesday, a move that bent to intense pressure from liberal House Democrats but that President Biden acknowledged may not prove constitutional.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a moratorium on evictions for 60 days for U.S. counties with “substantial and high levels of community transmission” of the coronavirus, according to an agency news release. About 90 percent of the country will be covered by the ban as the virus’s delta variant spreads quickly throughout the country, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

The 19-page order lists criminal penalties including fines and jail time if someone is found to have violated the eviction moratorium.

The Biden administration had previously said it had no legal authority to extend a separate national eviction moratorium that lapsed over the weekend. A statement from CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Tuesday evening pointed to the emergence of the delta variant and said “it is imperative that public health authorities act quickly to mitigate such an increase of evictions, which could increase the likelihood of new spikes in SARS-CoV-2 transmission.”

Are you a renter or landlord impacted by federal or local eviction moratoriums? Tell the Washington Post your story.

The administration’s move Tuesday capped a sudden and remarkable rift between Biden and his House Democratic allies, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who pushed the administration to act. Late last week, just days before the CDC’s moratorium was set to expire, the White House issued a last-minute call for Congress to pass a law offering new eviction protections. At the time, the White House said it did not have the legal authority to do so on its own.

House Democrats responded angrily, saying such a measure was impossible to pass through Congress on short notice and pressed Biden officials to extend the moratorium unilaterally. Neither side acted, and the moratorium lapsed.

Pelosi waged a multiday campaign to press the White House to act unilaterally. She spoke on the phone with multiple senior White House officials — including White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, White House aide Steve Ricchetti and the president himself — to urge them to reverse course and extend the ban, according to one person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal conversations.

Rep. Cori Bush (Mo.), who was homeless once, drew immense support from other Democrats by sleeping outside the U.S. Capitol for four consecutive nights in protest of the lapsed moratorium, sending a signal to the White House that the backlash was only growing. The White House had spent weeks trying to corral Democrats behind a big infrastructure package and there were clear signs in recent days that the party was fracturing. So after days of insisting there was nothing the White House could do, the Biden administration announced its new actions on Tuesday.

The eviction moratorium has ended. Here's what renters need to know.




Republicans are expected to oppose the move. Conservatives said the CDC’s order could exacerbate housing shortages by taking funding away from housing developers, which they said would in turn reduce their incentives to build.

“There’s an old expression that the best way to make people starve is to make food free. The best way to make people homeless is to make housing free,” said Casey B. Mulligan, who served as an economic official in President Donald Trump’s White House.

The rift between the White House and House Democrats over the expiration of the eviction moratorium had escalated earlier Tuesday as Pelosi ruled out bringing lawmakers back from their recess to address the issue through new legislation.

On a private call with Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and House Democrats, Pelosi said the consensus of the caucus was that the House should not come back from its recess and that lawmakers should focus on urging the Biden administration to extend the moratorium unilaterally, two people familiar with the conversation said. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a discussion that was meant to remain private.

Pelosi’s comments sent a clear signal to the White House that Congress was not going to act and that it would be up to the Biden administration to take unilateral action on evictions.

Also on the call, Yellen fielded lawmakers’ questions about delays in disbursing more than $46 billion in emergency rental assistance approved by Congress. Despite the expiration of the moratorium over the weekend, the Treasury Department has struggled to get funding out the door to renters in need — with recent administration estimates suggesting only a fraction of it has been released.

Data from Moody’s has shown more than 6 million Americans are behind on rent, and local housing organizers fear an uptick in eviction proceedings as the moratorium lapses.

Evictions are about to restart as tenants wait on billions in unspent rental aid

Sperling told reporters on Monday that the administration was pushing state and local officials to enact their own eviction moratoriums, as well as pushing federal agencies such as the Agriculture Department to extend eviction moratoriums where possible. Sperling also announced an “all-agency review” to learn why state and local governments are not getting funding out.

It is not clear how much more the Treasury Department can do to accelerate the distribution of funding.

“States and cities need at least another couple months to get this money out, and there’s no sticks or carrots Treasury can wield to make that happen faster. What we need is time,” said Paul Williams, a housing expert and fellow at the nonprofit Jain Family Institute and the author of an analysis on the current crisis.

The administration had said its hands are tied by an opinion from Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh saying any further extension of the moratorium would need congressional approval. But some experts argued the administration should still try to fight for it in court, noting Kavanaugh’s concurrence — written before the delta variant renewed fears about the impact of the coronavirus on renters — also pointed to the need to get rental relief disbursed.

Rachel Lazarus, legal aide attorney in Gwinnett County, Ga., said she hopes extending the moratorium will convince more landlords to work with existing financial aid programs, rather than try to evict tenants and replace them with new ones. She said the order may help thousands of renters stay in their homes in her area alone.

“We were gearing up for a lot of people in desperation saying they don’t have anywhere to go and having very little assistance for them,” Lazarus said. “When I saw this, I was very relieved.”

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The July numbers exceeded economists’ forecast for more than 860,000 new jobs. Hotels and restaurants, reopening and doing brisk business, added 327,000 jobs last month. Local public schools added 221,000.

The number of people who reported they had jobs surged by 1 million, pushing the jobless rate down from 5.9% in June.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story is below:

Despite an uptick in COVID-19 cases and a shortage of available workers, the U.S. economy likely enjoyed a burst of job growth last month as it bounced back with surprising vigor from last year’s coronavirus shutdown.

The Labor Department’s July jobs report Friday is expected to show that the United States added more than 860,000 jobs last month, topping June’s 850,000, according to a survey of economists by the data firm FactSet.

Economist Lydia Boussour at Oxford Economics is expecting even more — 1.02 million — partly because seasonal factors will swell the number of those hired to teach at public schools and work in restaurants and hotels.

Economists also expect the unemployment rate dropped to 5.7% from 5.9% in June, FactSet says.

The coronavirus triggered a brief but intense recession last spring, forcing businesses to shut down and consumers to stay home as a health precaution. The economy lost more than 22 million jobs in March and April 2020. Since then, though, it has recovered nearly 16 million jobs, leaving a 6.8 million shortfall compared to February 2020.

The rollout of vaccines has encouraged businesses to reopen and consumers to return to shops, restaurants and bars that they had shunned for months after the pandemic struck. Many Americans are also in surprisingly strong financial shape because the lockdowns allowed them to save money and bank relief checks from the federal government.

As a result, the economy has bounded back with unexpected speed. The International Monetary Fund expects U.S. gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic output — to grow 7% this year, its fastest pace since 1984.

Employers are advertising jobs — a record 9.2 million openings in May — faster than applicants can fill them.

Some businesses blame generous federal unemployment benefits — including an extra $300 a week tacked on to regular state jobless aid — for discouraging Americans from seeking work. In response, many states have dropped the federal unemployment assistance even before it is scheduled to expire nationwide Sept. 6.

Many Americans may be staying out of the job market because of lingering health fears and trouble obtaining childcare at a time when many schools are closed.

Another problem: Many of those thrown out of work by the coronavirus recession can’t go back to their old jobs.

Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, notes, for instance, that about 80,000 restaurants have closed since March 2020. So those displaced workers must find new employers and often new careers.

“Matching the unemployed to job openings will likely be a more prolonged process, given that finding a new job, perhaps in a new industry, will be a challenge,” Farooqi wrote in a research report.

Farooqi also said the labor market may face longer-term struggles once temporary labor shortages sort themselves out. This is because many businesses adjusted to working with fewer employees during the pandemic, often using technology that reduced the need for human labor.

Also clouding the outlook for jobs is a resurgence of COVID-19 cases caused by the spread of the highly contagious delta variant. The United States is reporting an average of more than 75,000 new cases a day, up from fewer than 12,000 a day in late June — although still well below the 250,000 levels of early January.

Oxford Economics’ Boussour says the spread of the delta variant might have “have dampened workers’ willingness and ability to rejoin the workforce.”

But she doubts it will have a big impact on the July numbers because virus worries didn’t escalate until after the Labor Department had collected its hiring data for last month.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans will oppose raising the federal debt limit if Democrats pursue their $3.5 trillion, 10-year plan to strengthen social and environment programs, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday.

The Kentucky Republican’s threat was the most explicit he has been about his desire to force Democrats to either take the politically unpopular step of unilaterally renewing the government’s borrowing authority or pare back President Joe Biden’s domestic policy agenda.

His remarks suggest that another high-stakes budget showdown between the two parties, with the government’s financial soundness in the balance, may be on tap. The party not controlling the White House often uses such moments to seek leverage, such as when Republicans pressured President Barack Obama into a 2011 deal that cut spending.

The government’s ability to borrow cash to finance its operations expired Aug. 1, when a two-year-old temporary suspension of borrowing limits lapsed. The Treasury Department has used accounting moves ever since to keep the government afloat, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that such actions will suffice only until October or November.

If the government loses access to fresh money, it could prompt a federal default, which has never occurred. Analysts have said that could badly wound the economy, perhaps over the long term, forcing up interest rates and federal borrowing costs.

Last month, McConnell said he couldn’t “imagine a single Republican” voting to raise the spending ceiling in an environment of “free-for-all for taxes and spending.”

On Thursday he was more explicit. His remarks came days before Democrats plan to begin pushing a budget resolution outlining their $3.5 trillion domestic programs package through the Senate. Republicans are poised to oppose that resolution unanimously.

“If our colleagues want to ram through yet another reckless taxing and spending spree without our input, if they want all this spending and debt to be their signature legacy, they should leap at the chance to own every bit of it,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

“Let me make something perfectly clear: if they don’t need or want our input, they won’t get our help. They won’t get our help with the debt limit increase that these reckless plans will require,” he said.

Democrats control the 50-50 Senate only with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote. On most bills, Republicans use filibusters to force Democrats to get 60 votes to halt the delaying tactics. McConnell’s comments indicated that GOP senators would not provide the needed support.

Legislation renewing the government’s ability to borrow money incurs no new debt and simply pays for already enacted spending and tax breaks.

Democrats are not without options, but none is risk-free and they’ve not yet decided what to do.

At least for now, they seem unlikely to pare back their plans to bolster education, health and environment programs that are the backbone of Biden’s policy aspirations. But some moderate Democrats are reluctant to vote to renew federal borrowing powers without at least some GOP backing.

They could put language suspending the debt limit anew in a bill Congress will have to approve by Oct. 1, the start of the government’s new budget year, to keep agencies open. That would force Republicans to decide whether to provide the needed votes for a bill that, if defeated, could cause the government to both default and close its doors.

Democrats could put provisions raising or suspending the debt limit into the $3.5 trillion bill they plan to write this fall that would enact the specific tax and spending changes envisioned in their budget resolution. Democrats plan to use special procedures to shield that bill from a GOP filibuster, but it might not be ready before the Treasury exhausts its accounting maneuvers.

The government’s current debt ceiling is $28.4 trillion. Federal borrowing has grown at record rates amid programs aimed at supporting the pandemic-battered economy

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mooray said:

The only part that pisses me off is that he'd be all too willing to raise the limit if they were in charge submitting their own plans, otherwise I wouldn't support raising the limit anymore than the typical 3% for inflation in addition to whatever adjustments for population.

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mooray said:

I know he's not popular around here, but that's why I liked Bernie. Who wouldn't want to invest in the health and education of the people? That shit comes back tenfold.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats pushed a $3.5 trillion framework for bolstering family services, health, and environment programs through the Senate early Wednesday, advancing President Joe Biden’s expansive vision for reshaping federal priorities just hours after handing him a companion triumph on a hefty infrastructure package.

Lawmakers approved Democrats’ budget resolution on a party-line 50-49 vote, a crucial step for a president and party set on training the government’s fiscal might on assisting families, creating jobs and fighting climate change. Higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations would pay for much of it. Passage came despite an avalanche of Republican amendments intended to make their rivals pay a price in next year’s elections for control of Congress.

House leaders announced their chamber will return from summer recess in two weeks to vote on the fiscal blueprint, which contemplates disbursing the $3.5 trillion over the next decade. Final congressional approval, which seems certain, would protect a subsequent bill actually enacting the outline’s detailed spending and tax changes from a Republican filibuster in the 50-50 Senate, delays that would otherwise kill it.

Even so, passing that follow-up legislation will be dicey with party moderates wary of the massive $3.5 trillion price tag vying with progressives demanding aggressive action. The party controls the House with just three votes to spare, while the evenly divided Senate is theirs only due to Vice President Kamala Harris tie-breaking vote. Solid GOP opposition seems guaranteed.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., once a progressive voice in Congress’ wilderness and now a national figure wielding legislative clout, said the measure would help children, families, the elderly and working people — and more.

“It will also, I hope, restore the faith of the American people in the belief that we can have a government that works for all of us, and not just the few,” he said.

Republicans argued that Democrats’ proposals would waste money, raise economy-wounding taxes, fuel inflation and codify far-left dictates that would harm Americans. They were happy to use Sanders, a self-avowed democratic socialist, to try tarring all Democrats backing the measure.

If Biden and Senate Democrats want to “outsource domestic policy to Chairman Sanders” with a “historically reckless taxing and spending spree,” Republicans lack the votes to stop them, conceded Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “But we will debate. We will vote.”

The Senate turned to the budget hours after it approved the other big chunk of Biden’s objectives, a compromise $1 trillion bundle of transportation, water, broadband and other infrastructure projects. That measure, passed 69-30 with McConnell among the 19 Republicans backing it, also needs House approval.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., assured progressives that Congress will pursue sweeping initiatives going beyond that infrastructure package.

“To my colleagues who are concerned that this does not do enough on climate, for families, and making corporations and the rich pay their fair share: We are moving on to a second track, which will make a generational transformation in these areas,” Schumer said.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., missed the budget votes to be with his ailing wife.

In a budget ritual, senators plunged into a “vote-a-rama,” a nonstop parade of messaging amendments that often becomes a painful all-night ordeal. This time, the Senate held more than 40 roll calls by the time it approved the measure at around 4 a.m. EDT, more than 14 hours after the procedural wretchedness began.

With the budget resolution largely advisory, the goal of most amendments was not to win but to force the other party’s vulnerable senators to cast troublesome votes that can be used against them in next year’s elections for congressional control.

Republicans crowed after Democrats opposed GOP amendments calling for the full-time reopening of pandemic-shuttered schools and boosting the Pentagon’s budget and retaining limits on federal income tax deductions for state and local levies. They were also happy when Democrats showed support for Biden’s now suspended ban on oil and gas leasing on federal lands, which Republicans said would prompt gasoline price increases.

One amendment may have boomeranged after the Senate voted 99-0 for a proposal by freshman Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to curb federal funds for any municipalities that defund the police. That idea has been rejected by all but the most progressive Democrats, but Republicans have persistently accused them anyway of backing it.

In an animated, sardonic rejoinder, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., called Tuberville’s amendment “a gift” that would let Democrats “put to bed this scurrilous accusation that somebody in this great esteemed body would want to defund the police.” He said he wanted to “walk over there and hug my colleague.”

Republicans claimed two narrow victories with potential implications for future votes, with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, one of the chamber’s more conservative Democrats, joining them on both nonbinding amendments.

One indicated support for health care providers who refuse to participate in abortions. The other voiced opposition to teaching critical race theory, which considers racism endemic to American institutions. There’s scant evidence that it’s part of public school curriculums.

The budget blueprint envisions creating new programs including tuition-free pre-kindergarten and community college, paid family leave and a Civilian Climate Corps whose workers would tackle environmental projects. Millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally would have a new chance for citizenship, and there would be financial incentives for states to adopt more labor-friendly laws.

Medicare would add dental, hearing and vision benefits, and tax credits and grants would prod utilities and industries to embrace clean energy. Child tax credits beefed up for the pandemic would be extended, along with federal subsidies for health insurance.

Besides higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, Democrats envision savings by letting the government negotiate prices for pharmaceuticals it buys, slapping taxes on imported carbon fuels and strengthening IRS tax collections. Democrats have said their policies will be fully paid for, but they’ll make no final decisions until this fall’s follow-up bill.

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The Biden administration announced Thursday it will automatically erase student loan debt for more than 300,000 Americans with severe disabilities that leave them unable to earn significant incomes.

The move will wipe out more than $5.8 billion in debt, according to the Education Department, and it marks the start of a broader overhaul of a program that has been criticized for having overly burdensome rules.

“We’ve heard loud and clear from borrowers with disabilities and advocates about the need for this change and we are excited to follow through on it,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

The federal government offers student debt relief for people who are “totally and permanently disabled” and have limited incomes. But the current rules require them to submit documentation of their disability and undergo a three-year monitoring period to prove they’re earning little pay.

Tens of thousands of people have been dropped from the program and had their loans reinstated simply because they failed to submit proof of their earnings, however, and critics say the complex rules deter some from applying.

Advocates have pressed the Education Department to eliminate the monitoring period entirely and to provide automatic debt relief to people who the Social Security Administration already identifies as permanently disabled.

Under the new action, both demands will be met. Starting in September, the Education Department will start erasing student debt for 323,000 Americans identified in Social Security records as being permanently disabled.

Borrowers will be notified once they have been approved for relief. All of the loans are expected to be discharged by the end of the year.

The department also plans to eliminate the program’s three-year monitoring period, which was previously suspended during the pandemic. That change is expected to be cemented during a federal rulemaking process set to start in October, the agency said.

“This is going to be a smooth process for our borrowers,” Cardona said in a call with reporters. “They’re not going to have to be applying for it or getting bogged down by paperwork.”

Advocates celebrated the change as a victory. Aaron Ament, president of the National Student Legal Defense Network, called it a “life-changing” step.

“This is a huge moment for hundreds of thousands of borrowers with disabilities who can now move on with their lives and won’t be trapped in a cycle of debt,” he said.

Democrats in Congress said it was the right move. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said borrowers shouldn’t face paperwork and other administrative hurdles if the federal government already knows they’re eligible for loan forgiveness.

“With this simple and sensible change, more than 320,000 borrowers and their families are being freed from the burden of student loans that they should not have to repay,” Scott said in a statement.

The program has faced scrutiny since 2016, when a federal watchdog agency found that the income reporting process posed an obstacle for borrowers. In 98% of cases in which loans were restored, it was because borrowers did not submit paperwork, not because their earnings were too high, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported.

The Trump administration started granting automatic loan cancellations to eligible military veterans in 2019, but the move did not apply to hundreds of thousands of other Americans with disabilities.

In March, the Education Department canceled debt for more than 40,000 borrowers whose debt had been restored because of paperwork issues, but it indicated further changes would need to come through a federal rulemaking process.

Cardona announced the change as the White House faces mounting pressure to pursue wider debt forgiveness.

Democrats including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, N.Y., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mass., have called on Biden to erase $50,000 in student debt for all borrowers as a way to jumpstart the economy.

Biden has asked the Education and Justice departments to assess the legality of mass debt cancellation. Cardona said Thursday that those conversations are “still underway.” Meanwhile, he said, his agency is working to improve other debt forgiveness programs that target specific groups of borrowers.

“It’s an effort to show that we are working to improve targeted loan relief and help our borrowers,” he said.

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