The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance discussed a number of legislative proposals to reform domestic insurance policy on Tuesday.
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) said efforts to reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) are ongoing.
The measure was signed into law following the 9/11 terrorist attacks due to fear that the limited availability of terrorism insurance could harm economic development.
Neugebauer said he’s worked with majority members of the subcommittee to draft a legislative outline that would reauthorize and reform TRIA.
“We will be working with our members over the next two weeks to finalize that draft,” Neugebauer said. “I will also sit down with our ranking member to solicit his feedback with the hopes of working on a bipartisan basis. From there we plan to release a draft bill with the intention of holding a mark-up in June.”
The committee also considered a number of bills that are designed to offer more choices for consumers and to provide regulatory relief to reduce the costs for domestic policyholders.
“First, we will examine legislation that ensures that the regulations intended to rein in certain activities of large, complex financial institutions don’t trickle down to insurance companies that are properly regulated at the state level,” Neugebauer said.
Additionally, the subcommittee discussed the Insurance Capital Standards Clarification Act, which would make the capital standards that apply to insurance companies more clear in an effort to help make financial products more affordable and available to consumers.
The subcommittee also considered the Policyholder Protection Act, which would permit state insurance regulators to step in when an insurance company is affiliated with a failing institution.