Terrorism Risk Insurance Revision Act of 2005

TERRORISM RISK INSURANCE REVISION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - December 17, 2005)

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Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that we are passing this crucial Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) extension, which will provide necessary stability for our Nation's economy in a post 9-11 world. I have strongly supported this legislation from the outset, and I congratulate Chairman OXLEY and Ranking Member FRANK for their hard work and the excellent product as it passed the House. While I wish more of the House provisions we passed 10 days ago had survived conference, I am pleased that we are able to extend TRIA before the deadline, so that it does not expire in 2 weeks. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this important conference report.

A stable, secure insurance market is vital to the health of our national economy. More than 4 years ago, the stability of the insurance industry, and all of our Nation's policyholders, were put in jeopardy when insurers and reinsurers lost more than $30 billion as a result of the 9/11 attacks. After these substantial losses, insurers were unable to make terrorism insurance available, which left many of our Nation's businesses vulnerable to unacceptable risk.

In response, Congress overwhelmingly passed TRIA to provide a temporary, limited federal backstop in the event of another catastrophic terrorist attack. While we still expect the insurance industry to eventually develop methods for making terrorism insurance available without government support, the market has not yet stabilized to the point where this is possible. Extension of TRIA, which is necessary to prevent the chill of development in our cities, has wide, bipartisan support, and should be enacted promptly.

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