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Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., both made thousands of dollars from rental properties last year, despite repeated calls to cancel rent during the COVID-19 pandemic, annual financial disclosures show.
Tlaib, Pressley, fellow "Squad" Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and other progressives co-sponsored in April 2020 Rep. Ilhan Omar's, D-Minn., bill to "institute a nationwide cancellation of rents and home mortgage payments through the duration of the coronavirus pandemic."
The Michigan Democrat's 2020 financial disclosure, filed last Friday, disclosed between $15,001 and $50,000 in rental income from a Detroit property. She disclosed the same income range of the rental property on her 2019 disclosure prior to the pandemic.
Pressley's 2020 financial disclosure disclosed between $5,000 and $15,000 in rental income from a Boston property in her husband's name. The pre-pandemic disclosure in 2019 also shows the same income range as 2020.
"We must cancel rent, extend eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, provide rental assistance, and offer legal representation for those at risk of eviction," Pressley tweeted in December 2020.
Pressley re-introduced Omar's bill in March 2021 that would have canceled rent and mortgage payments nationwide if it passed.
"With the economic impact of this pandemic worsening and the threat of eviction and homelessness looming large for families nationwide, we must take every measure possible to keep families safely housed, forgive all rental debt, and ensure that the credit scores of hard hit families are not forever tarnished," Pressley said in a press release.
"I'm joining Rep. @IlhanOmar and fellow colleagues for a press conference on the Rent & Mortgage Cancellation Act," Tlaib tweeted earlier this year amid the re-introduction of the bill. "Our residents need help during this ongoing pandemic & this legislation seeks to provide that help to ensure our neighbors have the housing they need."
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Tlaib praised Omar and thanked her for her leadership on this "bold" economic issue at the press conference.
"I'm proud to stand here and support a very important legislation and as somebody that represents the third poorest congressional district in the country that has been directly harmed from this pandemic," Tlaib said. "You were already in survivor mode prior to it and now it's gotten much worse."
Tlaib tweeted last March that there should be a "moratorium" on mortgage and rent payments to "combat this public health crisis."
Fox News' Peter Hasson contributed to this report.
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