The House is set to consider this week a bill to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA). The Senate has already passed a bill extending TRIA for seven years and adding coverage for domestic acts of terrorism. The House has already passed a more expansive TRIA renewal that extends the program 15 years and expands it significantly.

Rather than accepting the Senate version, the House Rules Committee passed a scaled down bill that preserves some elements of the bill it previously passed.

The newly revised House bill, H.R. 2761, that the House is to consider this week includes many of the Senate changes, such as the Senate’s seven-year lifespan for program authorization, rather than the 15-year authorization included in the original House bill, but it also includes protection for group life insurers; a reduction in the “trigger” for federal involvement to $50 million, from the Senate trigger level of $100 million; and a provision limiting life insurers’ ability to consider travel plans when considering coverage applications. Because the revised House bill would add group life to the Senate limits on TRIA’s covered lines, it would create a separate $5 billion recoupment pool for group life.

The current authorization for TRIA expires on December 31. Congress may stay in session through December 21. The White House has indicated that the Senate version is acceptable, but threatened to veto any TRIA extension that it considers to be too expansive.

December 11, 2007