Hoyer: Terrorism Risk Insurance Act Reauthorization Will Restore Certainty to Businesses, Prevent Harm to Job Creation

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) spoke on the House Floor this afternoon in support of reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which enjoys strong support from the business community because of its supporting role in job creation and economic growth. Below is a transcript of his remarks and a link to the video.

Click here for the video.

“I thank the Gentlelady from New York for yielding. I appreciate her work and the work of Mr. Neugebauer for bringing this bill to the Floor. This bill could have been, should have been, as Mr. Capuano said, passed a long time ago – passed a long time ago with an overwhelming vote. I brought this up in regular conferences and colloquies that I had with Mr. Cantor and, more recently, with Mr. McCarthy. But it's always timely to do the right thing. And today we're doing the right thing, and I rise in strong support of the passage of this bill.

“Reauthorizing the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act will provide much-needed certainty to businesses and insurers, certainty that will help our economy and prevent harm to job creation. I believe Congress has the responsibility to reauthorize the TRIA program, and I encourage all of my colleagues to join me in voting to do so today. This program expired at the end of 2014, and Congress must take action on TRIA without delay.

“I would reiterate that this program, as incorporated in this piece of legislation, has had well over 250 votes for at least the last year-and-a-half.  But it's never too late to do the right thing. The longer Congress waits, the worse the effects will be on our economy and job creation.

“I want to thank Ranking Member Waters, I want to thank Ranking Member Velázquez for her work on this as well, and as I said, the leadership on the Majority side that finally got us to a point where we could make an agreement last year.  We passed a bill last year; I regret that the Senate didn't pass it, but I applaud the Majority bringing it to the Floor as one of the first pieces of business that we do.

“All sides deserve, therefore, credit for their efforts to help restore certainty to businesses and protect against a slowdown in job growth that would result from not reauthorizing TRIA. Today we do the right thing. We do it in a bipartisan fashion. Let's hope we could continue to do this.”