This is Planet Money from NPR.

There is a single moment that we are going to call day zero, the creation moment.

And this is when Congress set aside a historically gigantic and incredibly important pile of money.

That day is five days before Christmas.

In December 2020, the pandemic's raging, millions of people have fallen behind on rent, and a massive eviction crisis is looming.

We can finally report what our nation has needed to hear for a very long time.

More help is on the way.

More help, says Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, because this was the day Congress had finally reached a deal on one of those big pandemic relief bills.

And if you scroll about halfway down through this bill, you'll see Section 501, if you will, Chris.

Emergency rental assistance, quote, in general out of any money in the treasury of the United States, blah, blah, blah, 25 billion dollars.

They'd add even more money, and this creates the largest pile of money in US history for emergency rental assistance.

And this really did seem to be one of those rare cases where our politicians saw a huge problem and came together and addressed it.

And of course came together to give help is on the way speeches.

To people who might have been evicted from their homes.

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.

Help is on the way.

Fun trivia, he says, that at least six times.

Help is on the way.

Help is on the way. Help is on the way.

Do you remember hearing anything about that?

After yeah, I was watching the news every day.

I probably watched every news press conference.

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