I don’t know whether to be more surprised that Congress might not be waiting until the last minute, or that there is serious thought of making TRIA permanent. From Business Insurance:
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act is set to expire at the end of 2007. Rep. Barney Frank has said before that he favors renewal of the post-9/11 program.
“We’ll do TRIA very quickly,” the Massachusetts Democrat said at the annual Reuters Regulation Summit in Washington.
“TRIA is important not so much for the insurance industry as for the commercial real estate industry. You won’t get any buildings built in New York, in Boston, in Chicago unless you have it…We will extend TRIA,” Frank said.
The article goes on to mention that Congressman Frank, who’s now the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is favoring at least long-term, even permanent renewal.
TRIA’s renewal is, of course, important since no commercial property insurer is willing to accept any significant terrorism risk, given the unknowns involved. Without terror cover, lenders are unwilling to finance commercial property sales or construction in major metro areas…and the effects ripple out from there.