Downing Introduces Federal Insurance Elimination Act
Last week, Congressman Troy Downing (MT-02) introduced his first bill of the 119th Congress, H.R. 643, the Federal Insurance Office Elimination Act. The act will return sole regulatory authority over the insurance industry to the states by abolishing the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office. The bill has received support from the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, and the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America.
“The law is clear. Regulation of the insurance industry rests with the states, not big government,” said Downing. “FIO is a duplicative federal bureaucracy whose existence hinders the efforts of state regulators better equipped to address the insurance needs of their communities. I was proud to call for FIO’s abolishment as Montana State Auditor, and I gladly do it now as a Congressman and member of the House Financial Services Committee.”
“The Federal Insurance Office’s burdensome regulations and oppressive federal oversight of each state’s insurance market are glaring examples of the federal government’s excessive overreach,” said Rep. Ben Cline (VA-06). “State laws protecting the availability of insurance for millions of Americans should be defended, not used as a political football. Defunding the ever-expanding agency is a good step towards draining the D.C. swamp and returning oversight back to the states.”
“The Federal Insurance Office Elimination Act will protect the successful state insurance regulatory system by repealing the Federal Insurance Office, an unnecessary federal bureaucracy created in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,” said PIA CEO Mike Skiados. “The proper place for the regulation of insurance is at the state level, which has served the insurance industry and consumers well for over a century and is better positioned to protect consumers in the future. PIA thanks Rep. Troy Downing for his leadership in protecting the state insurance regulatory system.”
“Since its inception, and especially recently, the Federal Insurance Office has pushed the bounds of its statutory mandate as an informational resource for federal policymakers,” said NAMIC SVP of Federal and Political Affairs Jimi Grande. “FIO has become a tool for political agendas, overreaching and creating confusion and burdensome costs for consumers, often just to duplicate the work of state insurance regulators. NAMIC thanks Congressman Downing for his prompt attention to this issue and is grateful to have a former state insurance regulator in Washington who truly understands insurance markets and how they operate.”
“Over the years, the Federal Insurance Office has proven to have questionable value for insurance markets as well as consumers,” said Big “I” SVP of Federal Government Affairs Nathan Riedel. “As one of the leading supporters of a strong and modernized statebased system of insurance regulation, the Big ‘I’ supports eliminating the FIO.”
