The US House of Representatives has voted to extend and expand the post-9/11 terrorism risk insurance program

The House of Representatives has passed an extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) for seven years.

The legislation H.R. 4299, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007, concurs with Senate amendments and adds certain provisions from the original House TRIA bill.

In addition to extending the program, the measure adds a reset mechanism for significant terrorist attacks (over $1bn) to lower the deductibles, and is designed to rebuild market capacity and then gradually increase private sector obligations over time

The House measure also adds group life to TRIA’s covered lines It also lowers the amount of terrorism losses required to trigger the backstop (from $100m to $50m) to encourage small insurers to provide coverage.

Other amendments include a provision to incorporate domestic acts of terrorism.

The Senate has signaled clearly it will not accept the House bill and the White House has threatened to veto it.