Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wish to take this opportunity to make comments on a couple of the amendments that have been or will be presented to the bill. First, with regard to the amendment presented by Senator Flake. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, I support this amendment. One of the issues we deal with in the reauthorization of TRIA each time we face it is the correct balance and the level of government protection and support that needs to be in place to help the market deal with major catastrophic events in the United States and the level of requirement we insist there be from the private sector and how they will step in and deal with these risks on an insurance basis rather than requiring the taxpayers to be the ultimate backstop. Ultimately our objective should be and must be that the taxpayer be relieved of this kind of burden and that the private sector step in and cover the risks through our private sector insurance markets. I think we have a pretty broad consensus that we are not at the level yet where we can get there, but each time we have reauthorized TRIA, we have moved it closer to that objective, and this legislation itself moves it closer. As I said in my introductory remarks, we have increased the retention level--in other words, the amount of money the private sector must pay back to the Treasury if the taxpayer is ultimately required to step in and backstop a catastrophic terrorist attack.…”