D.C. Council Delays Vote on Bill to Limit Airbnb Rentals
*By Christian Smith*
Washington, D.C., delayed the final vote on a bill that would severely limit operations for home-sharing companies like Airbnb and VRBO in the nation's capital in a surprise move by the D.C. Council Tuesday afternoon.
Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) agreed to postpone the vote until Oct. 30 after other council members raised concerns over how the city would pay for the regulations, which would ban short-term rentals of secondary properties in D.C. and would put a 90-day cap on Washingtonians renting out rooms in their primary residences.
Concerns over funding for the regulations largely stem from a recent [report](http://app.cfo.dc.gov/services/fiscal_impact/pdf/spring09/FIS%2022-92%20Short-Term%20Rental%20Regulation%20and%20Affordable%20Housing%20Protection%20Act%20of%202018.pdf) by D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt estimating the regulations would cost the D.C. government almost $100 million over a period of four years.
The delay comes just two weeks after the D.C. Council voted unanimously in favor of advancing the proposed regulation to the second and final vote in the law-making process. Across the board, timing has been an unusual factor in the push to regulate home sharing in D.C., said Andrew Giambrone, the D.C. editor at Curbed.
"The timing of this legislation is pretty interesting," Giambrone said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar.
"The original bill was introduced back in January of 2017, and it sort of lagged for a year and a half ー didn't make it through committee or wasn't advanced."
If the regulations are approved, they will not go into effect until October of 2019.
This is the first major attempt to regulate home-sharing in the nation's capital since Airbnb launched in D.C. in 2009. The City Council has [estimated](http://chairmanmendelson.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/B22-92-Short-Term-Rentals-Regulation-Packet-1.pdf) that there are about 9,000 local short-term rental properties, which Giambrone said is perhaps part of the reason the city is only now confronting home-sharing issues.
"Clearly it is a growing part of the market here for housing in D.C," he said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/d-c-could-become-the-next-major-city-to-limit-airbnb).
Women's March ATX rally, Saturday, Oct., 2, 2021, at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas. An expected decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming year to severely restrict abortion rights or overturn Roe v. Wade entirely is setting off a renewed round of abortion battles in state legislatures. (AP Photo/Stephen Spillman, File)
Inflation in the U.S. is only getting hotter. The 12-month inflation rate for December 2021 was the highest in nearly 40 years - continuing the trend seen at the close of 2021.
The Consumer Price Index increased 7% in the 12-month period ending in December, marking the fastest increase since 1982. Scott Wren, Senior Global Market Strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, joined Cheddar's Movers for more.
If President Biden runs for re-election in 2024, he may not have anyone to debate. The Republican National Committee sent a letter to the commission on presidential debates, saying the RNC will require candidates to pledge not to participate in those general election debates. Paris Dennard, RNC national spokesperson, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Student loan collection company Navient agreed to cancel $1.7 billion in debt and paid more than $140 million in other penalties to settle a lawsuit over abusive lending practices. Josh Shapiro, the attorney general of Pennsylvania who led negotiations in the settlement, joined Cheddar to go over the details of the company's predatory lending. "What Navient would do is charge [borrowers] these exorbitantly high rates, even though they knew people couldn't pay them or they would likely default on them," he explained.
The January 6 committee has subpoenaed four tech giants for more information on what they did and didn't do leading up to last year's deadly Capitol insurrection. Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit were asked to assist the investigation in August, but the committee says their responses have been 'inadequate.' Craig Timberg, a national technology reporter at the Washington Post, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more details about the subpoenas, why this is happening now, and how it might impact social media companies moving forward.
With the Australian Open set to begin on Monday, Novak Djokovic is once again being threatened with deportation from Australia after his visa was briefly reinstated and revoked again over alleged discrepancies. Djokovic’s team will sit for an Immigration hearing on Saturday.
Makena Kelly, politics reporter at The Verge, joins Cheddar News to discuss what's next for net neutrality as Biden's other nominee for the FCC, Gigi Sohn, awaits votes from the committee and Senate.
Jewell Jackson McCabe, chair of the Keep Love Alive Campaign and founder of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and Marvin Owens, chief engagement officer of Impact Shares and former senior director of Economic Development at the NAACP, join Cheddar News to reflect on racial issues still prevalent in America.
Hagar Chemali, Host of 'Oh My World' on Youtube and Former Spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the UN, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to share her expert insight into what the future of diplomacy could look like as the Russia-Ukraine crisis deepens.
