Their efforts are focusing on getting permanent life for the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which was only renewed last December after a tough battle and is due to expire in 2007.

Concerns were voiced during the panel discussion by a number of attendees–including a representative of the company that owns the World Trade Center properties–that terrorism insurance, already hard to come by, will dry up.

TRIA was only renewed for two years despite intense efforts by the insurance industry, and such at-risk industries as real estate, to have Congress commit to an ongoing so-called “public/private partnership” that would ensure a federal terrorism insurance backstop for the foreseeable future.

Under the current bill, all federal reinsurance for terrorism ends Dec. 31, 2007.

“We believe TRIA or some variation of a TRIA-like backstop is also fundamental to the economic security and homeland security of the country,” said Marylu Korkuch, vice president for federal affairs at the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies.

Ms. Korkuch, the moderator of the panel discussion, announced Congress' intent to hold the joint hearing.

“In fact, we went so far as to propose that the House Financial Services Committee and the HouseHomeland Security Committee hold a joint hearing on the matter to underscore the fact that TRIA is not 'an insurance industry problem.'

“And guess what?” she added. “We prevailed! I am delighted to tell you that Rep. Sue Kelly, [Rep.-N.Y.,] and Rep. Rob Simmons [R-Conn] agreed to convene their respective subcommittees to consider the issue.”

Rep. Kelly chairs the House Financial Services Committee's Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee, and Rep. Simmons heads the Homeland Security Committee's Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment Subcommittee.

The argument RIMS members were asked to take to the members of Congress they visited during their time here is that “economic security and national security are inextricably linked; terrorist attacks affect both.”

“The enduring, very real risk of catastrophic terrorist attacks on U.S. soil means that there is a continuing need for some form of national terrorism insurance mechanism beyond [the extension bill's] Dec. 31, 2007 expiration date,” the so-called “talking points” said. “Congress must act to ensure that the U.S. has an effective economic safety net in place beyond the end of 2007.”