“We are not going to give free money to insurers, trial lawyers or large commercial policyholders without an industry payback provision and sufficient legal protections to safeguard the U.S. Treasury and consumers wallets,” he added.

Rep. Oxley issued the statement following the House leaderships naming of its members of the House-Senate Conference Committee that will develop a consensus bill. Rep. Oxley said he has talked to his counterparts in the Senate numerous times and is confident that a consensus plan can be developed.

The House bill, H.R. 3210, is a government loan program under which insurers that experience terrorism-related losses could receive a loan from the Treasury that would be repaid largely through assessments on commercial policyholders.

The Senate bill, S. 2600, is essentially a quota-share program under which the federal government would pay up to 90 percent of terrorism-related losses, with no requirement that insurance companies repay the Treasury.

In addition, H.R. 3210 contains strict tort reform provisions, including a ban on punitive damages and caps on attorneys fees, while S. 2600 contains only procedural legal reforms.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, August 5, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.