Schumer: House Should Follow the Senate's Lead and Pass Terrorism Risk Insurance Extension

Press Release

Today by a vote of 93-4, the U.S. Senate passed legislation that will re-authorize and extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) program which is set to expire at the end of 2014. The legislation was sponsored by U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Dean Heller (R-NV), Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Jack Reed (D-RI). Created in 2002, the TRIA program is a critical priority for high-risk cities post-9/11. The program provides a federal backstop for insurance coverage against losses from devastating terrorist attacks. This insurance is crucial to spurring new development and protecting existing real estate in high-risk urban areas. TRIA has been reauthorized in 2005 and in 2007.

"In today's world, Terrorism Risk Insurance has become an important pillar of our economy, and it must be extended," said Schumer. "In a post-9-11 New York, Terrorism Risk Insurance has proven to be an absolutely essential partnership between the government and the private sector that has turned rebuilding downtown Manhattan from a question to a certainty, and it is important that this insurance be available if anything were to happen elsewhere in the state. Economic development, construction, and hundreds of thousands of jobs depend on this program, and preserving it for the future is essential to our economic growth. The House should quickly abandon its approach to drastically change the program and eliminate much of the certainty that TRIA is meant to provide, and pass our bill."

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