In a recent Senate Banking Committee hearing, a number of Republican senators questioned the necessity of extending the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2001. Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.) reminded the committee that the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program had been conceived as a temporary response to the 2001 attacks. “I think we are at a point where we can determine, what, if anything more, is required of this 'temporary' program,” he said.

Sen. Wayne Allard (R.-Colo.) said that he had reluctantly supported the original legislation. “I came around to supporting the TRIA legislation only after repeated assurances from the industry that this was a one time request-simply buying time for the private markets to regroup,” he said. “Now the industry is back with the same arguments. Once again, we are being told that the markets just need a little more time to adjust. I'm not sure why we should believe it this time, though. If this is to become a perpetual government program, like flood insurance, the industry should be honest about it.”

In seeking a more permanent solution, the United States might do well to emulate the European approach to dealing with the concerns of terrorism in commercial markets, suggested Jon S. Corzine (D.-N.J.). “I hope we can ultimately come up with a pool system for terrorism insurance that's modeled after the Pool Re system in Europe,” he told the committee.