Legislation reauthorizing TRIA was the first public law enacted during the 114th Congress after both the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation that had been negotiated in the final days of the 113th Congress.
TRIA was first enacted in 2002 when insurers and reinsurers began excluding terrorism risk from insurance coverage after the terrorist attacks of Sept, 11, 2001. The law requires that commercial property and casualty insurers offer to include terrorism coverage in the policies they are selling, but does not require the insured parties to purchase the coverage.
P.L. 114-1 (H.R. 26), signed by the president Jan. 12, extends TRIA for six years. The ABA supports TRIA and urged the act’s reauthorization in letters last November to Congress and the Treasury Department. The association’s policy, adopted in 2007, urged Congress and the administration “to protect property owners, consumers and the U.S. economy by partnering with the insurance industry to promote the availability of terror risk insurance through legislation that continues support for market mechanisms with federal government insurance as backstop protection.”