TWIA Committee Finalizes Recommendations to Board on Legislative Report 

Published on: September 1, 2026

The TWIA Board’s Legislative & External Affairs Committee met on September 1 and agreed to recommend five topics to the Board for possible inclusion in the Association’s Biennial Report to the Texas Legislature.

The Committee voted to move the following topics forward for consideration by the TWIA Board: 

  • Multidistrict Litigation: Eliminate or make optional TIC Section 2210.575(e) requiring actions against the Association be presided over by a judge appointed by the judicial panel on multidistrict litigation. 
  • FORTIFIED Home Construction: Consider the feasibility and possible public funding of FORTIFIED home construction and other mitigation programs. 
  • House Bill 3689 Refinement: Modify the law relating to TWIA’s catastrophe funding structure to: 
    • allow additional time to perform administrative tasks necessary to execute state financing arrangements and the statewide policy surcharges used to repay them, and 
    • allow for an alternative method of funding after the exhaustion of the Catastrophe Reserve Trust Fund and prior to executing state financing arrangements if the amount needed to pay excess losses is minimal. 
  • Depopulation Program: Modify aspects of TWIA’s Assumption Reinsurance Depopulation Program to encourage participation and the transfer of policies to the private market. 
  • Tort Reform: Consider legislative changes similar to measures passed by the Florida Legislature to address litigation issues impacting insurance costs. 

The Committee voted to remove the following topics from consideration: 

  • Secondary Home Coverage: Modify the property types eligible for TWIA coverage to require residential policies to be owner-occupied homesteads. 
  • E&S Lines Tax: Consider imposing a tax on excess and surplus lines insurers to help fund TWIA’s Catastrophe Reserve Trust Fund to pay storm losses. 
  • Minimum Required Funding Change: Require TWIA to secure funding for a 1:100 Probable Maximum Loss (PML) each storm season and assess member companies annually for the cost of reinsurance purchased above a 1:50 PML. 

The Biennial Report must be submitted to the Texas Legislature, the Insurance Commissioner, and the Sunset Advisory Commission in the year before a legislative session. By statute, the report must include:  

  • Any proposed changes in the laws relating to the regulation of TWIA,  
  • A statement of the reasons for the changes, and  
  • Any information regarding TWIA operations or procedures that is requested by the Texas Department of Insurance to be addressed in the report.  

The implementation of any recommended changes in law would require enactment by the Texas Legislature. 

The most recent TWIA Biennial Report was published in 2024.  

Members of the media with questions about the Committee meeting, please email MediaRelations@TWIA.org.

The meeting materials and archived recording for the Committee meeting are available on our Meeting Library page.