Credit Rental Realities A state House committee approved a bill on Wednesday that would prevent courts from halting evictions, even during a health emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic. House Bill 1564 says courts have no discretion to extend terms of a lease. Some supporters, including bill author Rep. Tom Gann (R-Inola), said they’ve talked to landlords with tenants who simply refused to pay because they couldn’t be evicted during a federal moratorium. "These were people who some of them were not affected at all by the COVID, and they were doing everything that they could to skirt the rent and steal a man’s labor," Gann said.