House tees up terrorism insurance bill

The House posted a six-year reauthorization for its Terrorism Risk Insurance Act program (TRIA) as a stand-alone bill, separate from the government funding bill now before Congress.

However the package includes several controversial tweaks to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law that could jeopardize TRIA’s extension as Congress heads into the final days of the legislative calendar.

Congress must reauthorize TRIA, which allows for the federal government to recoup costs after a massive terror attack, before the end of the year, or it will shut down.

Lawmakers had considered including the measure in the larger funding bill but ultimately decided in favor of separate legislation.

House leadership will meet at 4 p.m. on Tuesday to discuss the TRIA bill.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and other conservatives pushed to reform TRIA, arguing that it puts taxpayers at risk for hundreds of millions of dollars of losses.

Hensarling negotiated with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who supported proposals from the business community that would’ve kept TRIA the same.

The bill contains language that would double the threshold for damage that a terror attack must incur in order to qualify for government funding, from its current level of $100 million level to $200 million.

In addition to the long-term TRIA reauthorization, the bill includes several changes to Dodd-Frank. The most controversial provision is backed by Hensarling and has seen bipartisan support in the House but not in the Senate It would effectively wipe away regulations requiring non-financial companies — dubbed “end users” — to follow the same rules for the derivatives markets that are applied to banks.

While Senate Democrats are raising concerns about the “end users” issue, it’s received bipartisan support in the House. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, described the provision as little more than a “technical fix” and supported the legislation

Two other provisions attached in the TRIA package have broad bipartisan support. The first corrects an unintentional wording mistake in a portion of the bill known as the Collins’ Amendment.

The second was introduced by Republican Sen. David Vitter (R-Louis.) and requires that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors have one member who has community banking experience.

This story was updated at 4:16 p.m.