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September 21, 2004 at 08:00 PM
The chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee wants to mark up a federal terrorism reinsurance bill with a group life provision and send it to the House floor Sept. 29.[@@]
The chairman, Rep. Mike Oxley, R-Ohio, also wants to send over a military base insurance sales bill.
The TRIA bill to be marked up by the panel probably will include a provision offering protection for group life operations, but executives in the group life industry–especially at companies with both p-c and group life units–are voicing concerns because the bill being supported by the committee’s Republican leaders does not create a separate pool for group life companies or group life affiliates. Group life lobbyists were told this by majority staffers of the House Financial Services panel Monday.
According to industry officials in Washington who are familiar with the legislation, admitting group life insurers to the program without creating a separate pool for group life would raise the amount of losses that the companies had to absorb before federal help kicked in.
Group life industry officials were so concerned that the heads of group life units scheduled a “fly-in” to Washington to seek support for a separate pool for group life companies from members of Congress and the White House.
The fact that the House panel is marking up the bill means that the debate on extension of TRIA is heating up, according to a note that analysts at Prudential Equity Group L.L.C., New York, sent to investors today.
A “top industry lobbyist remarked that prospects for extending TRIA ]for another 2 to 3 years, albeit with higher deductibles] by year-end merit odds on a cautious side of a tossup,” the Pru analysts write in the note.
