Rep. Mike Capuano and Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, introduced H.R. 2761 in June. The bill extends the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) for 10 years, makes insurance against weapons of mass destruction risks available under same terms and conditions as conventional risks, changes TRIA's definition of terrorism to include acts of domestic terrorism, and sets the program trigger at $50 million, among other actions.

The insurance industry in particular lobbied for the latter as the original trigger for federal involvement was $100 million. "We hope the full House Financial Services Committee will follow suit when it considers the legislation next week, as this deep reduction will enable more small- and medium-sized insurance companies to participate in the program and increase the availability of terrorism insurance throughout the nation," says Carl Parks, senior vice president for government affairs at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Cos.