On Jan. 12, President Obama signed H.R. 26, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015, into law. On Jan. 7 the House passed H.R. 26, by a vote of 416-5; the following day, the Senate passed it by a vote of 93-4. This follows strong advocacy efforts by NAR in support of reauthorization, including many visits to Congressional offices, letters to both the House and Senate, and participation as a steering committee member in the Coalition to Insure Against Terrorism (CIAT).
H.R. 26 renews the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program for six years, keeping it alive through 2020. This program expired on Dec. 31, 2014, when the Senate failed to reauthorize it before adjourning for the year; while that was disappointing, leadership in both the House and Senate stated at the time that it would be a priority in the 114th Congress, and NAR is pleased that they carried through on that promise. Along with reauthorizing the program, H.R. 26 makes a few changes to further protect the federal government from risk – it raises the trigger amount for the program from $100 million to $200 million, and increases the mandatory recoupment amount from $27.5 billion to $37.5 billion, along with decreasing the government’s share in losses from 85% to 80%. Otherwise, it makes few changes to a program that has kept terrorism risk insurance affordable and available throughout the country since 2002, at virtually no cost to taxpayers.
NAR's letter to the House in support of TRIA reauthorizationpdf
Joint Trades Coalition letter to the Senate in support of TRIA reauthorizationpdf