The House may be giving up on efforts to move tonight to pass a stripped-down version of legislation that would extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.[@@]
Insurance industry supporters have been trying to get the bill on the “suspension calendar,” an expedited process for reviewing legislation, but sources said they believe the bill has been pulled from the suspension calendar.
The bill still could come up during the lame-duck session scheduled for mid-November, the sources said.
One issue holding up passage of the bill has been a demand by Democrats that the extension be increased to 2 years, the period included in a TRIA bill reported out by the House Financial Services Committee Sept. 29.
The insurance industry and its supporters in the House worked hard during the day Friday to change the House TRIA bill. The bill as approved by the House Republican leadership, including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, would have extended the existing TRIA program for 6 months, to June 30, 2006; deleted a provision adding group life; and raised the retention rate for insurers to 17.5%, from the retention rate of 15% included in the bill reported out by the House Financial Services Committee.
But strong lobbying by the industry and its supporters in the House persuaded the House leadership to retain the 15% retention rate for the industry for the 6-month extension and to put group life back into the bill.
David Winston, senior vice president, federal affairs, at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, Indianapolis, said at press time that his trade group was conducting a grassroots campaign that seeks to win the support of House Democrats for the bill.