The US Senate has passed long-delayed legislation to help pay the cost of insurance for future terrorist attacks - a measure the White House claims is needed to fill a gap the private sector is not handling.
The Senate voted 84-14 today to approve the bill, but it must be reconciled with a bill passed last year by the House of Representatives that has significant differences.
The insurance industry sought the measure after the September 11th attacks, saying that commercial property and casualty insurance companies would stop issuing terrorism coverage without it.
The Senate bill would have the government pay 80 per cent of terrorism losses up to $10 billion after an insurance company's deductible, and 90 percent of losses above 10 billion.
The US Treasury would set the deductibles, based on the insurer's share of the total US market for terrorism insurance.
The House and Senate bills differ mainly on the issue of restrictions on lawsuits stemming from terrorism attacks.
The House bill would prevent the use of taxpayers' money to pay for punitive damages in lawsuits stemming from terrorism attacks, but the Senate version does not.
White House officials have pressed to exclude punitive damages, saying that allowing this would simply encourage more lawsuits seeking big damages in excess of actual losses suffered.
The US Chamber of Commerce hailed the Senate move to pass the bill, saying that failure to have terrorism insurance legislation has stifled business investment.
But chamber vice president Mr Bruce Josten said lawmakers should include "reasonable limits on punitive damages."
"The Senate bill contains a glaring loophole that could force victims of terrorist attacks to pay punitive damages for the acts of terrorists," said Mr Josten.
"This loophole creates another crack in our legal system that will allow unscrupulous trial lawyers to exploit the aftermath of any future terrorist attacks."
AFP