In line with the theme of the Research Roundtable in Charleston, “Business Continuity Planning for Terrorism — Where’s Real Estate?”, work is under way in the nation’s capital to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 beyond its December 31, 2005, expiration date.

     The Congressional Budget Office asked catastrophe/terrorism risk modeling firm Risk Management Solutions (RMS)to model the terrorism risk to the government. Applying a variety of assumptions on terrorism coverage take-up rates, premium growth, and future terrorism threat level, RMS used the RMS Probabilistic Terrorism Model to quantify modeled losses under the bill's proposed structure. These results were incorporated by the CBO into their TRIA extension cost estimate.

      In early March, the National Association of Manufacturers released its “Energy Efficiency, Water and Waste-Reduction Guidebook for Manufacturers.” Among the best practices it features are: Increasing energy efficiency of motors, pumps, steam and building systems; Financing energy efficiency improvements through innovative funding arrangements such as third party lease purchase agreements; Cutting water waste through equipment upgrades, especially in heating, chilling and pumping of water; Reducing raw material and waste disposal costs by changing the design and use of materials used in the manufacturing process; Setting high environmental procurement standards for suppliers.

      According to The Washington Post, almost 300 publicly traded firms have missed their first-quarter deadlines for annual reports, pinning the primary blame on Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. That’s up from only 70 companies during the first quarter of 2004. In keeping with research conducted earlier this year by IAMC, the newspaper cites reports from Financial Executives International and the CFO Executive Board showing that both the cost of compliance and the job-change toll on CFOs are still trending upward.