While many of your members may not consider themselves a Commercial Real Estate Practitioner, many residential specialists may have some commercial business as well. We are asking for your help in identifying REALTORS® in your association who would want to add their names to the thousands of Commercial Real Estate Practitioners who will be sending a Call for Action to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program.
Created following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program filled the void created when private insurers withdrew from the terrorism insurance market. That disruption caused construction projects to come to a halt and commercial property values dropped. The Commercial Real Estate market simply can’t afford the uncertainty an expiration of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program would create.
Fortunately there is bipartisan legislation which passed the Senate by an overwhelming margin of 93-4, and takes a balanced approach to renewing the program created by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA). S.2244, the “Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2014,” renews TRIA for seven years, providing certainty in the market that terrorism insurance will be available at affordable rates through the year 2021. In addition, it has a Congressional Budget Office score of “zero.” Now it is up to the House of Representatives to act on the bill the Senate has approved.