WASHINGTON, D.C.— President Bush urged Congressional leaders on Oct. 1 to resolve their differences by the end of the week and adopt legislation to protect the insurance industry from losses from future terror attacks. At a meeting in the cabinet room at the White House, Bush asked House and Senate lawmakers working on the legislation to reach an agreement by the end of the week, reminding them that the absence of affordable terrorism insurance was costing hundreds of thousands of jobs. “This is a way for us to work together to put people back to work here in America,” Bush said, citing more than $15 billion in construction projects that he said had stalled because developers could not get affordable insurance. However, several of the construction projects that Bush highlighted earlier this year as being stalled are now under way. Yet others are still clearly encountering problems, reported the NY Times. Both the House and the Senate have adopted measures that try to encourage insurers to reduce skyrocketing premiums for some properties by limiting the liability of the industry. But the House and Senate bills approach the issue differently, and administration officials and Democratic leaders in the Senate have been squabbling over a largely symbolic provision that would limit the ability of terrorism victims to sue for punitive damages, the Times reported. The lawmakers have not reconciled the House bill, which requires the federal government to pay most of the cost of terror attacks that result in more than $1 billion in damages, with the Senate bill, which requires the government to pay 90% of claims after insured losses exceed $10 billion. The House bill also requires the industry to pay back the government, while the Senate bill does not. Bush did not express a preference for either measure. White House officials said Bush is planning to make a speech about the issue later this week before representatives from labor, real estate and financial services. SOURCE: NY Times
