The House gives in to the Senate and the administration
Washington
Group life insurance will not be included in an extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.
As House and Senate negotiators worked at press time to craft a bill extending the program for two years, it became clear that because of Senate and White House opposition, group life would not be added.
House negotiators agreed to drop group life as a covered line in a document they sent to the Senate on Dec. 13. Adding group life was included in a TRIA extension bill passed Dec. 7 by the House in a 371-49 vote but was not included in the Senate bill.
As negotiators toiled, it became clear that the narrower Senate version would dominate the final bill.
Negotiators were working against the background of congressional efforts to complete its work for the year by the weekend and the fact that, unless extended, TRIA sunsets Dec. 31.
The omission constituted a victory for the White House, which since June has made it clear it opposed adding group life to TRIA, saying it would only support an extension of TRIA if it was narrower than the current version and got the government out of the terrorism insurance business completely at the end of its two-year life.
