The US Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 created a federal backstop for terrorism insurance losses, acknowledging that private markets alone could not price and absorb the catastrophic potential of terrorist attacks.

TRIA's passage was part of the broader legislative and cultural response to 9/11 that reshaped American public life; the continuing debate over what losses can be insured, compensated, or only mourned underlies much post-9/11 poetry on grief, justice, and the limits of restitution.