Senate Adjourns with One Matter Left Unfinished
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iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The Senate adjourned for the year late Tuesday evening, but there was one item on the Senate’s agenda left unaddressed: the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which expires at the end of the month.
Set up after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, also known as TRIA, was established to help American businesses with insurance coverage in the case of a terrorist attack. Some have speculated that the Super Bowl may not be played if TRIA expires, though the NFL has insisted it will be played regardless.
The Senate was unable to come to an agreement on the TRIA legislation this week. Over the summer, the Senate passed a seven-year extension of TRIA. Last week, the House passed a measure that would extend TRIA for six years and would roll back limits placed on Wall Street bank provisions.
Democrats, like New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, opposed the changes to the Dodd-Frank legislation in the House bill on TRIA. But ultimately, it was objections from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., that sank the bill.
Senate Democrats attempted to place the House’s TRIA program on the calendar Tuesday night, but Coburn blocked the bill from moving forward.
“Several weeks ago I warned Speaker Boehner that if he followed Jeb Hensarling’s dangerous gambit, he risked killing terrorism insurance. Tonight, Senator Coburn struck the final blow when he objected to bringing the bill to the floor,” Schumer said Tuesday. “We hope that next year, the House Republican leadership will work with us in the same bipartisan way that the Senate did when we passed a TRIA bill 93-4. We hope the House will pass a bill quickly because billions of dollars of projects and hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk.”
The Senate was able to cross off many of the items on its to do list in the final days of session, ranging from issues like controversial nominees to tax extenders to the spending bill. But with the Senate now adjourned and the TRIA legislation set to expire at the end of the month, Congress will need to address TRIA early next year.
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