The legislation–H.R. 4619–is in response to comments made last month by Rep. Mike Oxley, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, after the Senate declined to accept any substantive provisions of the House bill extending TRIA for two years.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., echoes language creating an independent commission in the House TRIA extension proposal that was passed overwhelmingly by that chamber, but rejected out of hand by Senate negotiators, led by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

This latest bill would create a commission including representatives from all sectors of the insurance industry, as well as the Treasury secretary and a state insurance regulator.

Rep. Oxley called the TRIA extension measure that passed last month “short-sighted,” suggesting that “when members, inevitably, are asked again to renew this 'temporary' program, they will correctly conclude that in 2005 the can was simply kicked down the road without any real reform.”

Under the TRIA extension passed by Congress, an existing panel–the President's Working Group on Financial Markets–will study the need for continued federal involvement in terrorism risk insurance.

The working group is only required to consult with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, officials from the insurance and securities industries, as well as policyholder representatives to analyze the long-term availability and affordability of terrorism insurance, including coverage for group life and chemical, nuclear, biological and radiological events.

The working group consists of representatives from the Treasury Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Reserve Board.

The language for the current study was taken from the bill passed by the Senate. The more comprehensive House bill would have created an independent commission to study what role the federal government should play in terrorism risk insurance after the extended bill expires Dec. 31, 2007.

There is concern that the president's working group will merely rubber-stamp the Bush administration's demand that all federal support for terrorism insurance end after the current TRIA program expires.

“Main Street America is greatly interested in learning what such a commission would discover and recommend during the course of its work,” according to IIABA President William G. Stiglitz, an executive with the Hyland, Block & Hyland Agency in Louisville, Ky. “Terrorism risk is not confined to major markets. The effects of a catastrophic terrorist attack would reverberate throughout the industry and the nation's entire business community, so we applaud this legislation and support it wholeheartedly.”

The bipartisan legislation is co-sponsored by Republicans Sherwood Boehlert, Peter King, John McHugh, Tom Reynolds and John Sweeney of New York, and Christopher Shays of Connecticut, as well as Democrats Carolyn Maloney and Edolphus Towns, both of New York.

“It is commendable that representatives from both sides of the aisle are joining, in a bipartisan manner, to find solutions on such an important matter,” said Charles E. Symington Jr., IIABA's senior vice president for government affairs and federal relations.

“We applaud these legislators for their work in bringing this issue to the table. Our association, and our grassroots network of 300,000 agents, brokers and their employees, will do all we can to support their efforts,” Mr. Symington said.