Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. I thank the gentleman, my good friend, for yielding and for all of his hard work on this issue and on many others.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this rule because I believe the approach we are taking jeopardizes the passage in the Senate of a good, bipartisan compromise to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, or TRIA.

TRIA is incredibly important to New York--and to the entire country--and it is critically important that we pass a long-term extension of this bill. After 9/11, all construction in New York City stopped. You could not even build a hot dog stand. Thousands of people lost their jobs, and business ground to a halt because we could not get terrorism insurance. The only insurance available was from Lloyd's of London, and it was difficult to get and incredibly expensive.

If we do not reauthorize TRIA, no business will be able to get terrorism insurance in this country, and all construction will stop, costing thousands of jobs in our country. I must say, of all of the government programs that helped New York rebuild, I would say this program was the most important, and it did not cost taxpayers one dime.

I want to emphasize that I strongly support the TRIA compromise in this bill that was reached between Chairman Hensarling and Vice Chair Neugebauer, along with Senator Schumer and Ranking Member Waters. However, the deal reached did not include the end user margin bill that is also included in the underlying TRIA bill, which Senator Schumer and many other Senators are strongly objecting to.

The reason this was not part of the agreement is that adding unrelated bills that amend Dodd-Frank makes it much more difficult to pass this bill in the Senate. Where there are any changes to Dodd-Frank, many Senators take exception. It is very difficult to pass them. This, unfortunately, jeopardizes the chances of passing this important reauthorization of TRIA in the Senate, and it is extremely important to the overall economy of this country to pass this bill.

Separately, I want to note for the record that I support the end user margin bill, which would simply clarify that end users of derivatives, such as airlines and manufacturers, are not subject to Dodd-Frank's margin capital requirements.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 2 minutes.

Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. I voted for this bill in committee, which, as noted, passed this body with 400 votes, and also on the floor. However, I strongly oppose this rule because it puts TRIA's passage in the Senate in jeopardy, and this is truly unfortunate.

Before the Rules Committee, Ranking Member Waters and I suggested that we divide this out, have TRIA and the other bill--the Dodd-Frank, the regulatory bill--separate so that there would not be a problem in the Senate. Unfortunately, that did not happen, and I am extremely concerned that this puts in jeopardy the passage of a bill that is critically important to the economy of this country.

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