Sean Patrick Maloney: “I thank our chairman for his heroic leadership on this, along with the New York delegation, Gary Ackerman, and many…”

“I thank our chairman for his heroic leadership on this, along with the New York delegation, Gary Ackerman, and many, many others. This is an absolutely necessity for New York City and for our country and for our economy. After 9/11, I have never seen this body so united and determined, and I thank you for all of your help. But by far, the most important action by this Congress was enacting TRIA. Before TRIA, we could not even build a Popsicle stand in lower Manhattan. No one could build anything. Critical to our economic recovery was the passage of this Federal backstop, and I implore my colleagues to join the leadership, Mr. Frank and others, in passing this. They say it is not needed, but I hear from businesses in New York they cannot get insurance. Some have gone to Lloyd's of London. They get insurance policies that say you have this policy on the condition that TRIA is reauthorized. This is critically important. And I would like to stress to my colleagues that a very important part of our homeland security is our economic security. TRIA not only helped the rebuilding of New York City, it created jobs and helped America's economy grow despite the continuing terrorist threats against the United States. TRIA has no cost to the taxpayer unless there is a terrorist attack. And in that terrible event, if it happens, and I hope it doesn't, TRIA saves the government money by structuring what would otherwise be hastily drafted emergency spending.”