GAO report: Terrrorism insurance needed

Real Estate Weekly, March 6, 2002

A General Accounting Office (GAO) report released recently underscores the urgent need for Congress to pass terrorism insurance legislation to avoid further economic disruption, according to The Real Estate Roundtable's president and COO, Jeffrey D. DeBoer.

"Each day, property and casualty insurance policies expire and cannot be renewed with adequate coverage against terrorist acts. As a consequence, an increasing number of commercial transactions are cancelled or deferred, unnecessarily costing the economy thousands of jobs. While helpful in illustrating the problem, the GAO report offered to the House Financial Services. Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is just the tip of the iceberg," DeBoer said.

The GAO report states, "There are growing indications that some sectors of the economy - notably real estate and commercial lending - are beginning to experience difficulties because some properties and businesses are unable to find sufficient terrorism coverage, at any price.

If allowed to go unchecked, these difficulties are likely to increase as more insurance contracts come up for renewal over the next year."