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

On Jan. 12, President Barack Obama signed bipartisan legislation that extended TRIA for six years and made a few changes in program. Days earlier, both chambers of the new 114th Congress had passed the 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? In the House, Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) wanted to scale TRIA back and eventually phase it out. He came up with his own bill, which passed out of his committee. The only problem was that Rep. Hensarling's bill lacked the votes to pass the full House. As a result, leadership would not schedule a floor vote.