House Passes Terrorism Insurance Bill (Corrected)

“Originally, we thought about taking the bill the Senate has passed, amending it and sending it back,” Frank said. “I then heard that the Senate might be so unable to function that [an amended TRIA extension] wouldn’t get through” before Congress departed for the year.

By changing the bill number and adding back House elements the Senate has deleted, “we are saying to the Senate [that we are] not ready to…roll over and play dead,” Frank said. “I am unwilling at this point to let [debate] end without giving the Senate some chance to reconsider aspects” of the House bill.

Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, spoke for opponents of the amended House version of the bill.

“I encourage all of my colleagues to reject this exercise in legislative futility so that the Rules Committee can instead bring to the House floor a rule that would provide for consideration of the Senate compromise bill that the House has already received,” Sessions said.

“Passing a bill that has already been pronounced ‘dead on arrival’ in the Senate foolishly puts the reauthorization of this important program in jeopardy as its expiration at the end of this year draws closer,” Sessions said.

The American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, praised Frank and others, such as Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., for their support for putting group life protection back in the terrorism risk protection bill.

“Including group life in TRIA would help assure that this vital source of insurance protection–which is often the only type of life insurance that rank-and-file employees have–remains widely available after a catastrophic attack,” ACLI spokesman Steve Brostoff said.

“We understand that this has been a difficult battle in the face of a veto threat from the administration,” Brostoff said.

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, the vote total was described incorrectly in the original version of this article.