A Republican leader in the US has insisted that Congress will pay immediate attention to the now expired Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), according to JLT Group.
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (TRIPRA), created from TRIA, expired 31 December 2014.
House Financial Services Committee chairperson, Jeb Hensarling, announced that his chamber of Congress would bring to vote the same bill it “overwhelmingly approved” last session.
The house bill includes a six-year reauthorisation with an eventual $200 million trigger and a 20 percent copayment. The nuclear, chemical, biological and radiological trigger would remain at $100 million.
The bill, if passed, would then go to the Senate for a vote.
In December 2014, according to JLT Group, outgoing Senator Tom Coburn blocked a vote on the bill, despite a previous 93-4 vote in favour of the bill.
“This delay has caused much concern among insureds, particularly in the construction, real estate and banking industries, which relied on the federal backstop to anchor an available and affordable terrorism insurance strategy,” said Thomas Stokes, managing principal and US consulting practice leader of JLT Towner Insurance Management.
“Making the backstop permanent would be the best option, but the compromise reached last month would return certainty to the markets.”
