Latest Releases
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Releases New Report on Solutions to the Home Insurance Crisis
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), the lead Democrat on the Senate Housing Subcommittee, released a new report, Bold Solutions to the Home Insurance Crisis. It examines the nationwide crisis of rising home insurance costs, the role of climate-change-driven extreme weather events, and policy solutions that would tackle this affordability crisis. Across the country, Americans are increasingly facing unaffordable home insurance bills or aren’t able to access coverage at all. Insurers have significantly increased their rates, pushing up home insurance premiums an average of 45% since 2019. Sixteen years ago, home insurance was much more affordable and cost only 5% of the typical monthly mortgage payment. But these costs have now more than doubled to more than 10% of a typical mortgage payment, even as mortgage costs have also surged. Former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell emphasized the risk we face in response to Sen. Smith’s questioning during a Senate Banking Committee hearing, saying that “If you fast-forward 10 or 15 years, there are going to be regions of the country where you can’t get a mortgage” due to insurance companies pulling out of high-risk areas. Minnesotans have been particularly hit hard by rate increases. Last year, Minnesota home insurance rates increased 34%, which was the largest increase of any state, according to reports. These problems, Sen. Smith argues, are driven by the growing strength and severity of disasters due to climate change and an insurance industry motivated more by profits than protecting its customers. To address the problem, Sen. Smith lays out more than two dozen policy options that Washington can consider, ranging from those that lower physical risks for homeowners and communities, to wholesale alternatives to our current, private home insurance system. You can read the full report HERE: · Senator Smith’s opening letter here · An executive summary here “Owning a home has always been part of the American dream. But for too many families today, that dream feels further out of reach than ever before. Without affordable insurance, mortgages may become harder to get, home values
U.S. Senators Tina Smith, Dave McCormick, Ruben Gallego and Thom Tillis Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program for Seven Years
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-MN), Dave McCormick (R-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) introduced the bipartisan Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2026, which is essential to economic security by safeguarding the availability of terrorism risk coverage. This legislation is also cosponsored by Senators Britt (R-AL), Van Hollen (D-MD), Crapo (R-ID), Cortez Masto (D-NV), Kennedy (R-LA), Schumer (D-NY), Moreno (R-OH), Kim (D-NJ), Ricketts (R-NE), Alsobrooks (D-MD), Warnock (D-GA) and Blunt-Rochester (D-DE). Following the attacks on September 11, 2001, most states began allowing terrorism risk to be excluded from commercial insurance policies, leaving businesses and industries without access to coverage. Since insurance is a precondition for commercial lending and real estate transactions, this gap in coverage threatened broad economic damage across real estate, construction, energy, transportation, and related industries. Congress responded by passing the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA), creating a federal reinsurance backstop to stabilize the private market and ensure that commercial policyholders could continue to obtain terrorism risk coverage. The private insurance market has relied on the TRIA backstop ever since. When TRIA briefly lapsed in December 2014, terrorism exclusions that insurers had pre-filed with state regulators took effect automatically, making terrorism coverage effectively unavailable across commercial policies nationwide. As a result, terrorism risk coverage was removed from policyholders immediately and without notice. Given that the current threat landscape remains elevated, allowing a similar lapse in terrorism coverage would expose policy holders to unnecessary financial risk and uncertainty. “The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program is critical to keeping insurance available and affordable to businesses in Minnesota and across the country so they can grow and create jobs,” said Senator Smith. “Without this bill, a potential terrorism event would mean a financial catastrophe for many businesses and would be extremely costly to taxpayers.
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Presses Attorney General Bondi to Investigate Scam DMV Text Messages
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Tina Smith is pressing the Trump Administration to take action to combat a widespread text message scam affecting Minnesotans. Thousands of Minnesotans are reporting fake text messages from senders impersonating the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). These impersonators urge Minnesotans to make an online payment for an unidentified traffic violation or risk prosecution, a loss of driving privileges, and a damaged credit score, in addition to costing Minnesotans money. You can find an example of these messages here. “Beyond being a simple nuisance, these scams jeopardize the financial security of those it victimizes. And these messages
U.S. Senators Tina Smith, Steve Daines Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Support Apprenticeship Colleges
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Steve Daines (R-MT) reintroduced legislation to help increase enrollment in apprenticeship programs. The Supporting Apprenticeship Colleges Act would provide grant funding to help apprenticeship colleges expand outreach to potential students and employers, improve academic advising programs and address common barriers to degree completion like childcare access and support for first-generation students. Apprenticeship colleges are institutions of higher education that sponsor registered apprenticeship programs such as electrical, carpentry or information technology programs. The bill is also cosponsored by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). “Access to career education and hands-on training is critical for people to gain the skills needed
U.S. Senator Tina Smith Announces Win in Fight to Protect the Boundary Waters
WASHINGTON, D.C — Today, U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) issued the following statement after successfully fighting to remove a section in the House-passed One Big Beautiful Act which would have issued perpetual leases to a foreign mining company to pursue sulfide ore mining on the doorstep of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness: “Today marks a victory in our fight to protect the Boundary Waters. Buried deep in President Trump and Republican’s Big Beautiful Bill was a provision that gave a foreign mining company full permission to build a copper-nickel sulfide mine right on the doorstep of the Boundary Waters. I vowed to do everything in my power to protect
U.S. Senators Tina Smith, Steve Daines Re-Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Combat Drug, Gun Crimes on Tribal Lands
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) and U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) announced the bipartisan Protection for Reservation Occupants Against Trafficking and Evasive Communications Today (PROTECT) Act to combat drug trafficking in Tribal communities. Drug traffickers exploit prosecutorial loopholes, including the fact that Tribal courts do not have jurisdiction over non-Native offenders who traffic illegal drugs, like fentanyl, on to Tribal lands. The PROTECT Act would address this problem by enabling Tribal Nations to exercise their inherent authority to prosecute non-Native offenders for drug crimes and gun crimes. The PROTECT Act also includes provisions for Tribal courts to execute warrants for electronic communications to better combat drug traffickers and other criminals.
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