In the end, things went smoothly. But getting to that point inthe renewal of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) proved to bevery difficult.

On Jan. 12, President Barack Obama signed bipartisan legislationthat extended TRIA for six years and made a few changes in program.Days earlier, both chambers of the new 114th Congress had passedthe Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015(H.R. 26) by nearly unanimous votes.

Why, then, did reauthorization of TRIA take more than a year? Inthe House, Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling(R-Texas) wanted to scale TRIA back and eventually phase it out. Hecame up with his own bill, which passed out of his committee. Theonly problem was that Rep. Hensarling's bill lacked the votes topass the full House. As a result, leadership would not schedule afloor vote.

With the Senate firmly on board and Rep. Hensarling's billgetting no traction, negotiations began between the House andSenate, which resulted in a rare bipartisan agreement on a bill fora six-year reauthorization. Notably, it included a provisioncreating the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers(NARAB).

In December, the House passed the compromise—but then it hit abrick wall on the Senate side, in the person of retiring Sen. TomCoburn (R-Okla.), who had issues with NARAB provisions. When SenateMajority Leader Harry Reid attempted to bring the bill up for avote, Coburn blocked it by objecting. Rather than staying insession, the Senate adjourned and the bill died.

Congress' inability to complete its work led to a lapse in theterrorism insurance program, during which the world received avivid reminder of terrorism threats with the assault on the Parisoffices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Success in New Congress

With a new year came the new 114th Congress, which wasted notime accomplishing what the previous Congress failed to do. TheHouse passed the same bill on Jan. 7 by a vote of 416-5, with NARABincluded, and the Senate—without Sen. Coburn—passed the bill 93-4the next day.

A broad, nationwide coalition engaged in a coordinated TRIAadvocacy campaign that lasted for more than a year. This coalitionincluded businesses, state and local governments, and nonprofitorganizations.

This sustained effort is what led to success. It is a hopefulsign that progress instead of gridlock on Capitol Hill isachievable. It's no longer unthinkable that members of Congress canput partisanship aside and do what's good for Americans.

We must work together to ensure that the startup process forNARAB goes smoothly. The association is intended to facilitatereciprocity in producer licensing without creating a new federalinsurance bureaucracy. Therefore, PIA will work with its partnersto ensure that the law creating NARAB is properly implemented. Animportant part of this is to ensure that the Federal InsuranceOffice (FIO) has nothing to do with it, because it is statutorilyprohibited from functioning in any way as an insuranceregulator.