Following the devastating attack of September 11th and the insurance market disruption and instability that followed, Congress passed, and President Bush signed, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA). TRIA created a public/private partnership to manage U.S. businesses’ exposure to future risk of loss from acts of terrorism – a risk that lacks key characteristics of private insurability. TRIA was aimed at stabilizing insurance markets for policy holders, and providing additional federal protection against insurer insolvency resulting from a terrorist attack. The public/private risk-sharing partnership established by TRIA was extended until the end of 2007 by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Extension Act of 2005 (TRIEA).

On December 26, 2007, the President signed into law the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 (TRIPRA). TRIPRA keeps in place the basic framework of TRIA and TRIEA for seven more years until December 31, 2014, and amends the program in certain key ways that provide clarity to the program and extend its reach to the risk posed by all terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, whether perpetrated by foreign or domestic enemies.