The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002: A Summary of Provisions

RS21444 -- The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002: A Summary of Provisions

Updated January 12, 2006

Summary

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, many businesses were not able to purchase insurance for risk of property loss due to future terrorist attacks. Congress recognized the importance of terrorism risk insurance for the health of the U.S. economy, and enacted the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA, P.L. 107-297) to create a temporary program to share future insured terrorism losses with the property-casualty industry. TRIA requires insurers to offer terrorism insurance to their commercial policyholders, preserves state regulation of insurance, and directs the Secretary of the Treasury to administer the program of sharing losses. This report, originally authored by [author name scrubbed], provides a summary of the legislation as enacted in 2002. This legislation was extended and revised in 2005 by P.L. 109-144. For current information, see CRS Report RS21979, Terrorism Risk Insurance: An Overview, by [author name scrubbed]. This report will not be updated.