1Urging the Congress of the United States to reauthorize
2federally provided terrorism reinsurance for insurers in
3order to maintain stability in the insurance and reinsurance
4markets and to continue to deliver substantive and direct
5benefits to businesses, workers, consumers and the economy
6overall in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the United
7States.

8WHEREAS, Insurance protects the United States economy from
9the risks inherent in economic growth and development while also
10providing the resources necessary to rebuild physical and
11economic infrastructure, offer indemnification for business
12disruption and provide coverage for medical and liability costs
13from injuries and loss of life; and

14WHEREAS, The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,
15produced large insured losses and claims paid by insurers
16totaling about $32.5 billion, making this one of the costliest
17insurance events in United States history; and

18WHEREAS, The enormity of the terrorist-induced loss, combined
19with the possibility of future attacks, produced financial shock
20waves that shook insurance markets and caused insurers and

1reinsurers to exclude coverage arising from acts of terrorism
2from virtually all commercial property and liability policies;
3and

4WHEREAS, The lack of terrorism risk insurance contributed to
5a paralysis in the economy, especially in construction, tourism,
6business travel and real estate finance; and

7WHEREAS, The Congress of the United States originally passed
8the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-297,
9116 Stat. 2322), referred to as TRIA, in which the Federal
10Government agreed to provide terrorism reinsurance to insurers
11and reauthorized this arrangement in the Terrorism Risk
12Insurance Extension Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-144, 119 Stat.
132660) and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization
14Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-160, 121 Stat. 1839), referred to as
15TRIPRA; and

16WHEREAS, Under TRIPRA, the Federal Government provides
17reinsurance after industry-wide losses attributable to annual
18certified terrorism events exceeding $100 million; and

19WHEREAS, Coverage under TRIPRA is provided to an individual
20insurer after the insurer has incurred losses related to
21terrorism equal to 20% of the insurer's previous year earned
22premium for property-casualty lines; and

23WHEREAS, After an individual insurer has reached such a
24threshold, the insurer pays 15% of residual losses and the
25Federal Government pays the remaining 85%; and

26WHEREAS, The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program has an annual
27cap of $100 billion of aggregate insured losses, beyond which
28the Federal program does not provide coverage; and

29WHEREAS, TRIPRA requires the Federal Government to recoup
30100% of the benefits provided under the program via policy

1holder surcharges to the extent the aggregate insured losses are
2less than $27.5 billion and enables the government to recoup
3expenditures beyond that mandatory recoupment amount; and

4WHEREAS, Without question, TRIA and its successors are the
5principal reason for the continued stability in the insurance
6and reinsurance market for terrorism insurance to the benefit of
7our overall economy; and

8WHEREAS, The presence of a robust private/public partnership
9has provided stability and predictability and has allowed
10insurers to actively participate in the market in a meaningful
11way; and

12WHEREAS, Without a program such as TRIPRA, many of our
13citizens who want and need terrorism coverage to operate their
14businesses all across the nation would be unable to get
15insurance or unable to afford the limited coverage that would be
16available; and

17WHEREAS, Without federally provided reinsurance, property and
18casualty insurers will face less availability of terrorism
19reinsurance and will therefore be severely restricted in their
20ability to provide sufficient coverage for acts of terrorism to
21support our economy; and

22WHEREAS, Unfortunately, despite the hard work and dedication
23of this nation's counterterrorism agencies and the brave men and
24women in uniform fighting to keep us safe, the threat from
25terrorist attacks in the United States is both a real and
26substantial possibility for the foreseeable future; therefore be
27it

28RESOLVED, The the House of Representatives of the
29Commonwealth of Pennsylvania urge the President and the Congress
30of the United States to reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance

1Program; and be it further

2RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to
3the President, the presiding officers of each house of Congress
4and to each member of Congress from Pennsylvania.