Will Bush Spark Backstop Action Monday?
By Daniel Hays
NU Online News Service, April 3, 4:30 p.m. EST?President George W. Bush plans to speak out on the issue of terrorism insurance next week, and there are hopes his message will boost passage of legislation to provide a federal backstop for terrorism losses, an insurer group revealed today.
If the President's words provide the needed spark on Monday, Congress needs very little time to process such a measure, and "this could be done in hours," according to Julie Gackenbach, director of government relations at the National Association of Independent Insurers' Washington office.
Carl Parks, senior vice president for the Des Plaines, Ill.-based NAII, said the President has "been a leader from the very beginning in the effort to create a federal backstop."
Last December, a measure that would have the government pick up massive terrorism losses over a certain threshold stalled in the U.S. Senate after the trial bar lobby objected to tort reform, Mr. Parks noted.
Now, he said, President Bush is "in effect charging up the troops and sending a message to the congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle that I think will reinvigorate the effort on the Hill."
Mr. Parks said there had been agreement last December by House committee leadership on the insurance component of a consensus proposal, and "other than the problem with tort reform, this thing could be done pretty quickly."
Ms. Gackenbach said insurers hope that the President's "use of the bully pulpit will put this back on people's radar screen." She noted that the effort has received labor support, and that business has ratcheted up its lobbying effort with Congress.
When the President gives his remarks at the Old Executive Office Building on Monday, "we're hopeful," she said.The NAII said it did not have full details at this point on what sort of occasion would be used for the President's remarks.
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