House Insurance Subcommittee Approves Agent Licensing Reform Legislation and Measure to Create Federal Office of Insurance Information
Issue: Insurance Regulatory Reform
Date: July 9, 2008
Action Taken: Today the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises took action on two important insurance proposals that impact NAIFA members.
Agent Licensing: The Subcommittee approved by voice vote the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act of 2008, H.R. 5611. The bill, which is dubbed NARAB II and has been endorsed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, would ease the multi state licensing process for insurance producers by allowing agents and brokers the choice to join a licensure clearinghouse known as NARAB. Members of NARAB will be held to single set of non resident licensing and continuing education standards. For more information and quick facts about NARAB II please go to www.naifa.org/advocacy/irr/narab.cfm.
NAIFA worked closely with the bill’s sponsors Rep. David Scott (D-GA) and Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY) to bring about Subcommittee passage of NARAB II. During his opening statement today, Subcommittee Chairman Paul Kanjorski said he agreed to take up H.R. 5611 at today’s markup because of the support of NAIFA, the NAIC and other agent groups. For those following this issue closely, NARAB II was amended today to include a number of positive changes supported by the bill’s sponsors and industry advocates. An analysis of those changes will be available in the July 15 edition of GovTalk.
Office of Insurance Information: The Subcommittee also approved by voice vote the Insurance Information Act of 2008, H.R.5840 (click to read the bill). The proposal, which has the support of a diverse group of interest groups, calls for the creation of an Office of Insurance Information (OII) that would be housed within the U.S. Treasury Department. The OII would not be a regulator, but would collect and analyze insurance data and would advise the Secretary of the Treasury on domestic and international insurance policy. According to the bill’s chief sponsor Chairman Kanjorski, the OII “promotes an idea that the federal government should have an in house expert on insurance policy matters.”
NAIFA worked closely with Chairman Kanjorski to amend the original version of the OII bill to address concerns we had about preemption of state law, FTC involvement in an industry Advisory Group, and the sharing of non public data with the Advisory Group. Today H.R.5840 was amended by the Chairman to address those concerns and NAIFA endorsed its passage. For more information on the OII bill, please visit www.naifa.org/advocacy/irr/insuranceinfoQF.cfm.
Next Steps: Both H.R. 5611 and H.R. 5840 were ordered reported to the full committee or the full House with a favorable recommendation. Timing for further action is unclear, but NAIFA will continue to keep you informed as developments happen.
NAIFA Staff Contact: For additional information, please contact Jill Edwards at jilledwards@naifa.org.
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