The state-federal relations committee of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators will consider a resolution opposed to the Federal Insurance Office Act of 2009 (H.R. 2609) at its annual meeting in New Orleans November 19-21. NCOIL is already on record opposing H.R. 2609 in its current incarnation.

The resolution notes that pending FIO legislation extends well beyond a 2008 proposal to create an Office of Insurance Information (OII) and ultimately opposes the creation of an FIO, OII, and/or Office of National Insurance (ONI). PIA National supports this resolution.

In a letter to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Ranking Member Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), NCOIL said the latest draft of H.R. 2609 “moves well beyond the Committee’s desire in 2008 to create an insurance information office for the federal government to a proposed new federal insurance czar at the U.S. Treasury Department.”

“The fact that in thirteen months, the debate has moved from information gathering to imposition of a more powerful Federal Insurance Office (FIO) greatly concerns us…The office’s enhanced preemptive power and lack of answerability are alarming to state officials…”

NCOIL Pans FIO Proposal (PDF file, NCOIL 10/27/09)

NCOIL Letter Opposing FIO (PDF file, NCOIL  10/23/09)

PIA Says FIO Bill Is An Unmitigated Disaster for Main Street

November 17, 2009