Workers’ Comp Association Urges TRIA Extension

The American Association of State Compensation Insurance Funds, based in Bloomington, Minn., reported that it has urged key members of Congress to extend the federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act beyond its Dec. 31, 2005, expiration date.

“TRIA is especially critical in workers’ compensation because of the direct impact that acts of terrorism have on businesses and their employees and families,” AASCIF President Patricia Johnson said in letters to Rep. Michael Oxley, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, and Sen. Richard Shelby, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

Workers’ compensation insurance is mandatory for employers in almost every state, and current laws don’t permit coverage exclusions for terrorism. TRIA protects businesses and individuals by providing a critical financial backstop for insurers in the event of a terrorist attack. Making sure coverage is available and affordable for employers is vital to each state’s economy, the letters said.

AASCIF includes state fund insurer organizations in 26 states and Puerto Rico that provide critical workers’ compensation coverage to business owners and their employees as a vital part of their jurisdictions’ workers’ compensation systems. Insured workers’ compensation premium of these insurer organizations is estimated at more than $16 billion.