Why it Matters

In a Senate chamber where bipartisan cooperation has become the exception rather than the rule, a bill to reauthorize the federal government's terrorism insurance backstop landed Monday with 22 cosponsors, 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats, a rare show of cross-aisle unity that reflects both the stakes of the policy and the long shadow of September 11.

Sen. David McCormick (R-PA) introduced S. 4395 on April 27, 2026, to reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, (TRIA) the federal program that requires private insurers to offer terrorism coverage and backstops their losses if a certified attack exceeds certain thresholds. The program is currently set to expire on December 31, 2027.

Why Both Parties Are On Board

The bill's appeal across party lines is rooted in economics more than ideology. TRIA was born out of the collapse of the private terrorism insurance market after the September 11 attacks, which generated more than $40 billion in insured losses. Before those attacks, terrorism coverage was typically bundled into standard commercial policies at no extra charge. Afterward, insurers pulled it entirely or priced it out of reach.

Without a federal backstop, real estate developers, construction firms, energy utilities, and transportation companies would once again face a market that cannot reliably absorb catastrophic terrorism risk. Those industries exist in every state, which explains why the cosponsor list runs from Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) to Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID).

Industry groups have pushed Congress to act early, well before the program enters its final year, to prevent the kind of market uncertainty that tends to freeze lending and development. The Real Estate Roundtable has noted that acting in 2026 "would provide long-term certainty and help avoid disruptions if reauthorization were to slip into the program's final year."

The House Financial Services Committee already voted 51 to 2 in January to advance a companion House bill, H.R. 7128, which would extend the program through 2034. That near-unanimous margin signals the kind of durable, institutional consensus that rarely surfaces in the current Congress.

Political Context

For most of the cosponsors, backing this bill is consistent with their broader records on financial services and economic security. TRIA has been reauthorized four times since its original passage, each time with overwhelming bipartisan support. The most recent reauthorization was signed into law in December 2019 by President Trump as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act.

That history matters. Senators on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, where the bill was referred after introduction, have repeatedly treated TRIA as a baseline economic infrastructure issue rather than a partisan one. Several of the bill's cosponsors sit on that committee, including Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), and Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL).

Other cosponsors include Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN), Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), and Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).

What the Program Does

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program, administered by the U.S. Treasury, creates what the department describes as "a transparent system of shared public and private compensation for certain insured losses resulting from a certified act of terrorism." In practice, it means that private insurers must make terrorism coverage available in their commercial property and casualty policies, with the federal government stepping in to share losses above a set threshold if a major attack occurs.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has noted that without this structure, terrorism coverage "became prohibitively expensive" for most policyholders in the aftermath of 9/11. The sectors most directly affected, real estate, construction, energy, and transportation, represent a significant share of commercial lending and economic activity nationwide.

The International Council of Shopping Centers has stated that it "strongly supports a fifth reauthorization in 2026," calling the program essential to stabilizing insurance and commercial real estate markets since the original attacks.

Where the Administration Stands

The bill was introduced just one day before this article was published, and its full legislative text has not yet been released. However, Trump signed the last TRIA reauthorization into law in 2019, and no opposition to the House companion bill surfaced when it advanced out of committee in January. The White House's statements of administration policy page does not list a position on either measure as of now.

The Bottom Line

S. 4395 now sits in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. With a companion bill already through committee in the House and a 2027 expiration date that the insurance industry considers uncomfortably close, pressure to move quickly is building. The question is whether the Senate committee takes up the bill before the calendar makes the urgency harder to ignore.

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