There is still a chance that Congress could take on President Bush and put group life back into a bill extending the federal terrorism risk insurance program.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, says the House will vote to extend the current Terrorism Risk Insurance Act until April 30, 2008, rather than accept a narrow terror program bill passed by the Senate.
The current version of TRIA will expire Dec. 31.
Frank talked about TRIA extension efforts in Boston, at the annual meeting of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, Des Plaines, Ill.
The Bush administration has argued that the TRIA program should be as short-lived and as limited in scope as possible, to patch up insurance markets that cannot function at all without government help.
Insurers say that some markets that appear on the surface to be functioning well, such as the group life market, also need TRIA protection.
The House has passed a broad TRIA bill that would include protection for group life insurers and a variety of other provisions, such as a reduction in benefit triggers and protection against attacks involving weapons of mass destruction.
