National Jul 10, 2014

TRIA bill headed to Senate floor

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate majority leader, put forward a motion to proceed on S.2244, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act yesterday. S.2244 had been voted unanimously out of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee last month. This action by Sen. Reid begins the procedural process to consider S.2244 in the full Senate.

Under S.2244 TRIA, set to expire at the end of 2014, would be extended for a period of seven years. The legislation would increase insurers copays to 20 percent from 15 percent. While the recoupment of federal payments will be mandatory if the insurance industrys aggregate compensation loss is less than $37.5 billion, up from the current sum of $27.5 billion. These increases will be phased in over a period of five years.

PIA supports the reauthorization of TRIA and urges the Senate to act on this legislation quickly to ensure that market disruption is minimized.