My hunch is even as recently as a few weeks ago - Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer (etc) decided that because Biden's vaccination stuff was going so well they focused on purely on the politics of 2022. In their POV - even trying to continue the moratorium wasn't worth the "political capital" to try get Sinema and Manchin to play ball.

They'd let the evictions happen, and they'd blame the republicans. Plus they'd say Gotta vote harder in 2022 so we got a bigger majority! But when vaccination stuff started to go haywire - they didn't know what to do. Maybe the supreme court's ruling surprised them? That makes no sense at all. But I just don't understand it. Anyway - they did what they often do when they are facing a non-Trump crisis which is nothing at all.

All of this is ghoulish, insanely stupid, and horribly self-destructive. But, hey, they're democrats - it's what they do.