Industry Experts See Congress Extending TRIA

By Arthur D. Postal Washington Bureau Chief

NU Online News Service, Oct. 25, 3:29 p.m. EDT, Washington?Experts within and outside the insurance industry said they believe Congress will ultimately extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, while hedging on whether Congress will act in lame duck session next month or next year.[@@]

Speaking at a seminar titled "The Insurability of Terrorism," Gordon Stewart, president of the Insurance Information Institute, said "inertia is on the side of extension" because if TRIA is not extended, "Congress will have to think of an alternative." Mr. Stewart stated, "The political equation is on the side of extension."

One reason Congress is likely to extend it, said Bruce Deal, a managing principal at the Analysis Group, and another panelist, is that indications are that the take-up rate for terrorism insurance has doubled from the first quarter of 2003 to the second quarter of 2004, the last date for which information is available.

The take-up rate in the first quarter of 2003 was 23.5 percent, which had risen to 46.2 percent by the second quarter of this year, Mr. Deal said. Mr. Deal was part of an economic team which recently completed a study commissioned by the insurance industry that explained in detail why TRIA should be extended.

Another panelist, Clifton Rodgers Jr., senior vice president of the Real Estate Roundtable, added that he "remains optimistic Congress will get something done."

Mr. Rodgers said that while the real estate industry will make an effort to get the extension done in the lame duck session scheduled for next month, action is more likely in the next Congress.

And, Terri Vaughn, Iowa insurance commissioner and another panelist at the seminar, noted that at a recent Senate hearing on insurance issues, "virtually every senator said they supported extension of the legislation."

The seminar, sponsored by GE Insurance Solutions, was held Sunday in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America that is being held in Washington, D.C. The convention got underway Monday.

The House Financial Services Committee on Sept. 29 passed a bill extending TRIA for two years, but the bill died Oct. 15 after House Democrats balked at supporting a compromise that would extend it for six months, to June 30, 2006, pending further action next year.

The Senate never dealt with the issue, although a measure similar to the legislation that passed the Financial Services panel was introduced in late September with broad bipartisan support.

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Industry Experts See Congress Extending TRIA

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