Fellow US House of Representatives colleagues Richard Baker, Eric Cantor, Sue Kelly and Deborah Pryce joined Sessions in yesterday's call for an extension as co-sponsors of HR 4634. "The action taken by these representatives will help to sustain America's economic recovery over the coming years," says Gail Davis Cardwell, the Mortgage Bankers Association's senior vice president, commercial/multifamily. The new bill comes just days after the US Department of the Treasury extended the "make available" provision of TRIA, the segment of TRIA that requires insurance companies to make terrorism insurance available on the same terms as property and casualty insurance.

The Coalition to Insure Against Terrorism--an entity representing 69 organizations in the fight to ensure that terrorism legislation is available and affordable--also applauds the introduction of HR 4634 after having begun pushing for the extension last year. "As important as stepped-up homeland security and our continued vigilance are in the fight against terrorism, it is equally vital that we protect the nation's economic strength," says Martin L. DePoy, CIAT spokesperson and vice president for government relations at the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts. "Extending the terrorism insurance backstop beyond next year will do just that, by providing an essential safeguard for US jobs and commerce." HR 4634 has now been referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.