Hundreds of businesses urge passage of TRIA
Over 400 businesses, including a number of insurers, have signed a letter sent to all members of the US House of Representatives urging the swift passage of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) legislation.
The letter, from the US Chamber of Commerce, was signed by 409 businesses, including Ace, AIG, Aon, Lloyd’s and Swiss Re.
In April, many organisations across the nation joined in a letter to Congress strongly urging that the body move swiftly to reauthorise the TRIA which is currently set to expire at the end of this calendar year.
“The undersigned organisations applaud the House and Senate for efforts thus far to renew this program, including the Senate’s work in July to pass a long-term, bipartisan reform bill with a 93-4 vote. We write to you today to urge the House to move forward in reauthorising this critical program as soon as possible,” said the letter.
“The tragic terrorist attacks on 9/11 fundamentally changed the landscape for insuring against the risk of terrorism in the U.S. Struck with an inability to model frequency, location, type and the potentially devastating scale of modern terrorism, insurers were forced to pull out of the marketplace, and in the months following the attacks, the inability of insurance policyholders to secure terrorism risk insurance contributed to a paralysis in the economy, especially in the construction, travel and tourism, manufacturing, and real estate finance sectors.
“President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers estimated that over 300,000 jobs were lost prior to TRIA’s initial enactment in 2002.”
It added that TRIA serves as a vital public-private risk sharing mechanism and that it fosters certainty in the marketplace by ensuring that private terrorism risk insurance coverage remains commercially available at virtually no cost to the taxpayer.
“Without the backstop that TRIA provides, the private insurance market would simply be unable to provide adequate levels of terrorism risk insurance. Maintaining a workable federal terrorism insurance mechanism is vital for our nation’s economic security. Without adequate coverage, our ability to mitigate further economic fallout in the event of an attack would be greatly impaired,” said the letter.
