HB 7128 — the TRIA Program Reauthorization Act of 2026 — amends the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 to extend the program’s statutory expiration from 2027 to 2034 and makes targeted changes to how the Secretary of the Treasury handles certification of an "act of terrorism." The bill raises a monetary figure in the certification definition from $5,000,000 to $25,000,000, adds a 90‑day Federal Register timing element that can affect certification outcomes, and requires the Treasury to publish a Federal Register notice within 30 days after beginning a certification determination.
The bill also updates several statutory dates in a technical subsection and standardizes the program name to "Terrorism Risk Insurance Program." For insurance markets, insurers, reinsurers, and large commercial policyholders, the changes alter the administrative timeline and some coverage triggers while keeping the federal backstop in place for a longer period.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill amends the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 to (1) extend the program’s statutory end date from 2027 to 2034; (2) change certification mechanics by increasing a referenced dollar figure from $5,000,000 to $25,000,000 and by creating Federal Register timing rules tied to certification outcomes; and (3) make technical date and naming corrections across the statute.
Who It Affects
Directly affected parties include the Department of the Treasury (which conducts certification reviews), property and casualty insurers who participate in TRIA, large commercial policyholders that buy terrorism coverage, and reinsurers and capital providers who underwrite large terrorism exposures.
Why It Matters
Extending TRIA preserves the federal backstop for insurers and the commercial real‑estate and corporate markets through 2034; the certification changes add administrative transparency but also introduce a new timing risk that can determine whether an event is certified and therefore indemnified under TRIA.
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What This Bill Actually Does
HB 7128 keeps the federal terrorism‑insurance backstop alive for a longer period by changing the statutory sunset in Section 108(a) of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act from 2027 to 2034. That is a straight extension: the statute’s program authority remains, but its authorized end date moves seven years forward.
The bill alters the certification regime in Section 102(1). It raises a monetary figure referenced in subparagraph (B)(ii) from $5,000,000 to $25,000,000 and adds a new subclause that treats an act as not certified if the Secretary does not certify the act before the expiration of a 90‑day window following publication of a specified Federal Register notice.
Complementing that, the bill requires the Secretary to publish, within 30 days after the Secretary begins the process of determining certification, a Federal Register notice informing the public that a certification determination is underway. The Secretary may also publish or otherwise provide additional notices stating that an act is not being evaluated.Finally, HB 7128 makes a set of technical fixes: it revises several year references inside Section 103(e)(7)(E)(i) to align with the extended program dates and replaces every occurrence of "Terrorism Insurance Program" with the consistent term "Terrorism Risk Insurance Program." Those edits are clerical but matter for cross‑references and program documentation.Taken together, the bill extends the federal guarantee and adds administrative transparency and a procedural deadline to certification determinations — changes that will alter how quickly Treasury must act and how markets react in the immediate aftermath of a suspected terrorism loss.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill extends the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program’s statutory expiration date from 2027 to 2034 by amending Section 108(a) of TRIA (15 U.S.C. 6701 note).
Section 102(1)(B)(ii) is amended to substitute $25,000,000 in place of $5,000,000 for the monetary figure referenced in that clause.
The bill adds a new subclause making an act not certified if the Secretary fails to certify it before the expiration of a 90‑day period following publication of a Federal Register notice required under the bill.
The Secretary must publish a Federal Register notice within 30 days after beginning the process of determining whether to certify an act as terrorism; the Secretary may also publish notices saying an act is not under evaluation.
The bill updates multiple year references in Section 103(e)(7)(E)(i) (e.g.
replacing 2022→2029, 2023→2030, 2024→2031, 2029→2036) and standardizes the statute’s terminology to "Terrorism Risk Insurance Program.".
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
Provides the Act’s name: "TRIA Program Reauthorization Act of 2026." This is a formal heading; it carries no operative effect but is how the amendment package will be cited in statute and future references.
Extension of program authority to 2034
Amends Section 108(a) of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act to strike "2027" and insert "2034." Practically, this preserves the federal backstop and its statutory authorities for an additional seven years, keeping in place the program’s existing structure and triggers unless future amendments are adopted.
Changes to certification mechanics and notice obligations
Revises Section 102(1) by raising the monetary figure in subparagraph (B)(ii) from $5,000,000 to $25,000,000, adding a new subclause that ties non‑certification to a failure to certify within 90 days after a specified Federal Register notice, and replacing the prior notice subparagraph with a requirement that the Secretary publish a Federal Register notice within 30 days of beginning a certification determination. This provision imposes a firm public‑notice timeline and creates a procedural deadline that can determine whether Treasury will ultimately certify an event.
Technical date updates and naming cleanup
Makes targeted, non‑substantive edits to Section 103(e)(7)(E)(i) by updating various year references to align with the program extension and replaces every instance of "Terrorism Insurance Program" with the consistent term "Terrorism Risk Insurance Program." These changes reduce the chance of internal inconsistencies in the statute and align cross‑references with the new expiration date.
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Explore Finance in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Commercial property owners and large corporate policyholders — keeping TRIA in place through 2034 maintains the federal backstop that helps keep terrorism coverage available and premiums more stable for large, catastrophic exposures.
- Primary insurers writing terrorism risk — the extension preserves the government’s role in sharing extreme aggregation losses, supporting market capacity and reinsurer willingness to underwrite large commercial portfolios.
- Capital providers and reinsurers — program continuation reduces tail‑risk uncertainty in the terrorism insurance market, helping structure reinsurance and alternative risk transfers with a known federal backstop.
Who Bears the Cost
- Federal government and taxpayers — extending TRIA preserves a contingent federal exposure to large terrorism losses through 2034; that backstop can translate into fiscal risk if large certified events occur.
- Department of the Treasury — the bill imposes operational duties (timely Federal Register notices, adherence to a 90‑day timing rule) that require process, staffing, and legal review to meet new deadlines and disclosure obligations.
- Insurers and policyholders for smaller losses — by raising the $5M figure to $25M in a certification‑related clause and adding the 90‑day clock, the bill can shift responsibility for some events or timing‑sensitive claims away from federal indemnification and back onto private insurers or claimants.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill tries to balance two legitimate objectives — extending the federal backstop to preserve market capacity and adding transparency and timeliness to Treasury’s certification process — but those goals can conflict: greater administrative transparency and a 90‑day timing rule reduce uncertainty for markets in one dimension while creating a new, date‑driven risk that can cause either rushed decisions or inadvertent denial of federal coverage for events that require longer technical review.
The bill’s extension is straightforward, but the certification and notice changes introduce new operational risks. Requiring the Secretary to publish a Federal Register notice within 30 days of starting a certification review creates a visible public signal early in an investigation; that transparency may help markets but can also move prices and behavior before Treasury reaches a final view.
Separately, the newly added 90‑day window tied to that notice creates a hard timing outcome: if Treasury does not certify within that period following the notice, the act is treated as uncertified under the amendment. That timing rule could incentivize hurried determinations or invite legal challenges over when the "process of determining" actually began and whether the 30‑day publication requirement was satisfied.
Raising the $5 million figure to $25 million in the cited clause alters a numeric trigger inside the statute; the bill text does not explain the policy rationale or how that figure interacts with other thresholds in TRIA. Practically, that increase could narrow the set of smaller events that meet certain certification criteria or shift costs to insurers for events that fall into a mid‑range losses band.
Finally, the technical year changes and renaming are clerical but must be implemented carefully to avoid cross‑reference errors in the statute or in implementing regulations.
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