On The Money: Biden’s eviction moratorium kept in place for now by court

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THE BIG DEAL—Appeals court rejects effort to halt Biden eviction moratorium: A federal appeals court on Friday rejected an effort to block the Biden administration’s new eviction moratorium, likely teeing up the lawsuit for the Supreme Court.

• A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously denied an emergency motion filed by two chapters of the National Association of Realtors to halt the eviction ban.
• The brief, unsigned decision comes a week after U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, rejected the groups’ effort to block the moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Just hours after the D.C. Circuit’s ruling, the landlord groups asked the Supreme Court for review, accusing the administration of having “caved to political pressure” to extend the moratorium. The Hill’s Harper Neidig tells us what’s ahead here.

LEADING THE DAY

AFL-CIO elects first woman as president: The AFL-CIO on Friday elected longtime labor advocate Liz Shuler as its new president.

• Shuler, who served as the organization’s secretary-treasurer since 2009, is the first woman to lead the AFL-CIO in the organization’s history.
• The election comes after Richard Trumka, who led the labor federation for more than a decade, passed away earlier this month.

“This is a moment for us to lead societal transformations—to leverage our power to bring women and people of color from the margins to the center—at work, in our unions and in our economy, and to be the center of gravity for incubating new ideas that will unleash unprecedented union growth,” Shuler said in a statement Friday.

The AFL-CIO also elected United Steelworkers International Vice President Fred Redmond to succeed Shuler as secretary-treasurer.

The stakes: 

• The elections come at a crucial time for the AFL-CIO, which consists of 56 affiliate unions representing more than 12 million workers. 
• The labor federation is pushing Democrats in Congress to prioritize the PRO Act, a sweeping pro-union bill meant to reverse a rapid decline in union membership.

The Hill’s Karl Evers-Hilstrom breaks it down here.

US Chamber of Commerce backs Democrats threatening to derail budget resolution

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is running digital ads praising nine moderate House Democrats who are urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to immediately convene a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by the Senate earlier this month. 

• Those Democratic lawmakers, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), have threatened to block leadership’s $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which serves as a framework for the reconciliation package, until the bipartisan infrastructure bill gets a floor vote.
• The Chamber and other prominent business lobbying groups support the bipartisan plan, which invests over $1 trillion in infrastructure without raising taxes on corporations, but they strongly oppose Democrats’ larger reconciliation package that would be paid for with tax hikes.

Here’s more from Karl.

GOOD TO KNOW

• Reuters: “The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City said on Friday its annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, will take place on Aug. 27 virtually and not in person as planned, the clearest sign yet of the impact of the COVID-19 Delta variant on the Fed’s plans.”
• General Motors (GM) announced on Friday that it would be expanding its recall of Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles due to their defective batteries and potential associated fire risks.
• Apple is reportedly delaying its plans for employees to return to their offices until January, joining the growing list of companies adjusting return plans over concerns about COVID-19 cases and the highly contagious delta variant. 

ODDS AND ENDS

• Tesla announced Thursday that it is planning to build a humanoid robot to perform physical tasks and will likely have a prototype ready next year, The Washington Post reported.
• The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday issued a joint memo with the U.S. Department of the Army allowing states and tribes to extend the finalization process for water permits after a Trump-era rule imposed a one-year window.