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For Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, the eviction fight is personal

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., speaks to crowds that attended a sit-in at Capitol Hill after it was announced that the Biden administration will enact a targeted nationwide eviction moratorium outside of Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, August 3, 2021. For the past five days, lawmakers and activists primarily led by Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., have been sitting in on the steps of Capitol Hill to protest the expiration of the eviction moratorium. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., speaks to crowds that attended a sit-in at Capitol Hill after it was announced that the Biden administration will enact a targeted nationwide eviction moratorium outside of Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, August 3, 2021. For the past five days, lawmakers and activists primarily led by Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., have been sitting in on the steps of Capitol Hill to protest the expiration of the eviction moratorium. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades) Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., speaks to crowds that attended a sit-in at Capitol Hill after it was announced that the Biden administration will enact a targeted nationwide eviction moratorium outside of Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, August 3, 2021. For the past five days, lawmakers and activists primarily led by Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., have been sitting in on the steps of Capitol Hill to protest the expiration of the eviction moratorium. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)

By BRIAN SLODYSKO and JIM SALTER / Associated Press 6 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – Roughly two decades before she was elected to Congress, Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri lived in a Ford Explorer with her then-husband and two young children after the family had been evicted from their rental home.

So for Bush, a first-term Democrat from St. Louis, the debate over whether to revive the moratorium on evictions during the pandemic is deeply personal. To dramatize her point, she started to sleep outside the U.S. Capitol last Friday to call attention to the issue as part of the effort to pressure President Joe Biden and Congress to act.

On Tuesday, she won. After coming under intense pressure, the Biden administration issued a new eviction moratorium that will last until Oct. 3, temporarily halting evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmissions, which covers areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives.

Bush’s experience sets her apart from the more conventional partisan sniping and grandstanding in the capital because of her direct connection to an urgent problem affecting millions of Americans.

“I know what it’s like to be evicted and have to live out of my car with my two babies,” Bush said in an interview Saturday. “As long as I am a sitting U.S. congressperson, I will not keep my mouth shut about it.”