Terror Risk Insurance Act Extended

The Treasury Department has decided to extend a key provision of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act that requires commercial property and casualty insurers to provide terrorism insurance for another year.Under pressure from the real estate industry and Congress, Treasury officials acted more quickly than expected. Treasury officials had until Sept. 1 to extend the "make available" provision in the TRIA through 2005. However, they decided to extend it well in advance of that deadline "to avoid any potential disruption" in the terrorism insurance market, the department said. "The terrorism risk insurance program has been an important confidence builder as this country recovered from the attacks of September 11 and the recession," secretary John Snow said.