Federal Insurance Bill Released

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, has released a discussion draft of legislation intended to create a federal insurance regulator.

H.R. 2609, formally dubbed the Insurance Information Act of 2009, has been renamed the Federal Insurance Office Act of 2009. Despite the re-branding, the contents of the bill are largely the same. The act seeks to create a federal insurance regulator, now named the Federal Insurance Office.

Much like the proposed Office of National Insurance, it will be housed within the Treasury Department and charged with filling gaps in the current regulatory structure and monitoring systemic risk. The office is also envisioned presenting a unified voice for U.S. insurance regulators for concluding agreements with international regulators.  

"Other than the name, on initial review, it appears to track Treasury’s proposed legislation establishing an office of national insurance,” said Blain Rethmeier, a spokesman for the American Insurance Association. “It properly addresses the need for a strong national voice on insurance issues at the federal level.”