WASHINGTON, DC—The push to extend the Terrorism RiskInsurance Act took a small step forward. TheSenate Banking Committee unanimously approved theextension on Tuesday and the measure now moves to the full Senatefloor. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is revving up forits own measure plus a likely negotiation for compromise with theSenate, which is more accepting of the measure.

But all that is down the road. For now, the commercial realestate industry is breathing a sigh of relief that the measure madeit past this milestone. "The Senate Banking Committee did the rightthing today by voting to extend the terror insurance act,"Real Estate Roundtable CEO Jeff DeBoer tellsGlobeSt.com. "Allowing this important law to lapse would slow jobgrowth and leave our economy vulnerable to terrorist attacks."

Briefly, theSenate measure, put forward in the Senate by CharlesE. Schumer (D-NY), Dean Heller (R-NV), Mark Kirk (R-IL) and JackReed (D-RI) earlier this year would increase an insurers' co-payfrom 15 to 20%, with the government still covering 80% of eachcompany's additional losses. This increase would be phased inincrementally over five years. The proposed legislation would alsoraise the mandatory recoupment threshold to $37.5 billion, so thatwhen the insurance industry's aggregate uncompensated losses arebelow $37.5 billion the government will be required to recoup itsTRIA payments outlaid to insurers.