TRIA Renewal Expected

The Bush administration should use its authority and direct insurance companies to continue to offer terrorism insurance in 2005, according to 19 Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee.The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act gives the Treasury Department until Sept. 1 to extend a requirement that commercial property-casualty insurers provide terrorism insurance coverage for another year. Otherwise, those insurance companies will be able to drop the coverage at the end of this year. "An extension will ensure that terrorism coverage is widely available while the Treasury does its good work and while private market solutions are still being developed," the 19 Republicans said in a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow. A House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on terrorism insurance is scheduled for April 28.