"It came absolutely out of nowhere," IEDC president and CEO Jeffrey Finkle tells GlobeSt.com about its insurer Liberty Mutual's decision not to renew its policy. "It's unpatriotic. Obviously, some underwriter there has predicted the devastation of the White House and if you take that to the ultimate conclusion, they're predicting the death of the president. That's the only conclusion you can get from them not insuring us."

He adds that IEDC had expected and was willing to pay a high rate increase. Indeed, Liberty concedes that it opted to not continue its relationship with IEDC because of its location.

"We did insure them and we did non-renew that account," Liberty Mutual senior vice president Paul Mattera explains. "Following Sept. 11 it's clear to us and other insurers that some businesses, because of their proximity to a high profile location, are more difficult to underwrite due to the lack of reinsurance."

But he takes issue with IEDC's assertion that his company is predicting disaster. "That's preposterous," he says. "We're not predicting anything but neither are we going to make a bet on a property where we're being asked to provide workers' compensation when workers' compensation providers have had their capital significantly depleted as a result of the World Trade Center attacks." Mattera goes on to explain that in order for an insurance company to provide insurance to a business, the insurance company itself must have reinsurance. Many reinsurance companies, however, have withdrawn coverage for terrorism.

Mattera adds, "the problem is a good example of why congress needs to act to pass a federal backstop to replace re-insurance that was lost because of Sept. 11."

Indeed insurance companies, real estate organizations, banks and a bevy of other companies that purchase or sell insurance have been campaigning Congress to institute such an act. Currently, that legislation is tied up in the Senate. Finlke says he wonders, "whether Liberty Mutual is trying to make political pawns of some of its insurance customers." Fortunately for IEDC, however, The Hartford was more than willing to extend insurance to the organization.