Rep. Mike Capuano and the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank, today introduced, H.R. 2761, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Revision and Extension Act of 2007 (TRIREA). The bill extends the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) for ten years and will spur the development of a private market for terrorism risk insurance. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many insurance companies excluded terrorism events from their insurance policies. As a result, Congress passed TRIA in 2002 which created a federal backstop to protect against terrorism related losses. In 2005, the measure was extended for two years and currently is set to expire at the end of 2007. Also joining Rep. Capuano and Chairman Frank in co-sponsoring TRIREA are Reps. Gary Ackerman, Joseph Crowley, Paul Hodes, Steve Israel, Peter King, Carolyn McCarthy, Carolyn Maloney, Gregory Meeks, Dan Boren, Emmanuel Cleaver, Lincoln Davis, Al Green, Luis V. Gutierrez, Steven Lynch, Tim Mahoney, David Scott, Christopher Shays, Brad Sherman, Albio Sires, Melvin Watt and Robert Wexler.
Since its enactment, TRIA has ensured the availability of affordable terrorism risk insurance in the marketplace and thereby fostered continued urban development and real estate development in the United States. While the TRIA program has successfully kept terrorism insurance affordable, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets recently concluded that a private market for terrorism insurance is not yet commercially viable – especially with regard to insurance against nuclear biological chemical and radiological (NBCR) acts of terrorism. The Terrorism Risk Insurance Revision and Extension Act of 2007 (TRIREA) will include provisions to:
* Extend TRIA for 10 years with current co-payments and deductibles for conventional terrorism acts;
* Expand TRIA’s ‘make available’ requirement to include NBCR coverage;
* Change TRIA’s definition of terrorism to include acts of domestic terrorism;
* Set the program trigger at $50 million;
* Add group life insurance to the lines of insurance for which terrorism coverage must be made available;
* Decrease deductibles and triggers for areas previously impacted by a significant terrorist attack; and,
* Continue to require studies of the development of a private market for terrorism risk insurance.