NU Online News Service, Sept. 7, 2:02 p.m.EDT

An amendment that would "sunset" or end the Terrorism RiskInsurance Act (TRIA) in 2013 will be offered Thursday as anamendment to the legislation reauthorizing the National FloodInsurance Program (NFIP).

Currently, TRIA is scheduled sunset in 2014 unless reauthorizedby Congress.

Word that Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., would offer the amendmentsent the insurance industry scrambling to persuade Wicker to drophis amendment, or, failing that, line up enough support to defeatit.

In response, Wicker says, "Terrorism insurance is an importantproduct for many across our country, but a private market may bebetter suited to insure against these risks rather than agovernment program."

Wicker will introduce his amendment just a few days before theanniversary of the terrorist attacks on the East Coast on Sept. 11,2001, and a month after Guy Carpenter, the reinsurance brokersubsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, issued a new reporton the issue.

The report says that while acts of global terrorism peaked in2006, at more than 14,400, acts of terrorism "still remain athistorically high levels at more than 10,000 in 2010 alone.

Moreover, the report says that while terrorism risk insurance iscurrently "abundant" in the marketplace, "due to its unpredictablenature, insurers and reinsurers [continue to] struggle to quantifyits risk."

A letter written by the Real Estate Roundtable today to Wickerurges him to withdraw the amendment.

"On behalf of the America's real estate industry and thebusinesses that drive the U.S. economy, we encourage you towithdraw this amendment," the letter states.

It adds that the current federal terrorism risk insuranceprogram "has been a tremendous success," and the program "costsvirtually nothing if an event does not occur."

The letter also says that if an event does occur, TRIA has aspecific cost-sharing approach for the first $100 billion of annuallosses by businesses due to terrorist attacks, explicitly leavingit to Congress to make additional choices were an attack to costeven more.

Importantly, the letter says, there is a recoupment provisionthat would assess policyholders to repay taxpayers for any fundsadvanced.

"Moreover, it serves as an important tool to minimize the severeeconomic disruption that almost certainly will occur from a futureterrorist attack," the letter says.

"Private markets alone will not provide the level of terrorisminsurance our economy demands," concludes the letter.

 Matt Gannon, assistant vice president of federalaffairs for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies(NAMIC), says, "The committee, and the Senate as a whole,will have ample opportunity to debate the merits of the TRIAprogram over the next few years as its expiration date approaches.Sen. Wicker's amendment is not relevant to the NFIP, and we hope itdoes not distract the committee from the urgent need to reform andreauthorize this vital program."