Markup of TRIA extension bill expected next week

WASHINGTON--The House Financial Services Committee may consider the Terrorism Risk Insurance Revision and Extension Act of 2007 next week.

The committee's Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee is expected to begin marking up the bill early next week, according to industry sources. The full committee could take up the measure as early as next week as well.

The bill would extend the federal terrorism insurance backstop, currently slated to expire on Dec. 31, for 10 years. Among other things, the measure would extend the backstop's coverage to group life insurance and would permit the program to respond to acts of domestic- as well as foreign-initiated terrorism.

In anticipation of the Financial Services Committee moving "forward to mark up" the bill "next week," American Insurance Assn. President Marc Racicot sent a letter Thursday to the committee's leaders expressing the group's "appreciation for your steadfast leadership and recognition of the continuing role" the backstop plays in protecting national economic security.