Legislation allowing creation of the National Association ofRegistered Agents and Brokers (NARAB) passed the Senateyesterday.

The bill was added to S. 2244, the Terrorism Risk InsuranceProgram Reauthorization Act of 2014, by voice vote.

Companion House legislation, H. R. 4871, has been reported outby the House Financial Services Committee, but the bill is beingheld up because the provisions dealing with a TRIA extension arestill being debated. It is unclear when the House will reach aconsensus on its version of the legislation.

Given that, it is unlikely Congress will pass legislation untilthe fall, and perhaps as late as December.

“The idea for NARAB is now 14 years old,” Sen. Mike Crapo,R-Idaho, ranking minority member of the Senate Banking Committee,said on the Senate floor today.

“We've been working on it literally for that long, and I'mhoping that in this legislation today we can get it across thefinish line.”

Crapo said that under the NARAB provisions, insurancecommissioners of the states “will be able to better catch badactors who after losing a license in one state more quickly toenter into another state.”

Crapo also said state regulators will serve on the board ofNARAB “with the same objectives they have as an insurancecommissioner—to protect the public interest by promoting the fairand equitable treatment of insurance consumers.”

The Senate bill does contain a provision demanded by Sen. TomCoburn, R-Okla., that will require another vote to sustain NARABwithin two years of the time it is up and running.

Both the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers of America(CIAB) and the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America(IIABA) voiced support for the provision.

Charles Symington, IIABA senior vice president of external andgovernment affairs, said while the Senate bill contains the“sunset” provision “the IIABA would like to see changed before themeasure is enacted into law, it was critically important to movethe bill forward in the legislative process.”

Symington said the NARAB provision “would achieve much neededreciprocity in producer licensing and help policyholders bypermitting greater competition among agents and brokers.”

Joel Wood, CIAB senior vice president of government affairs,said the CIAB is “pleased” that the legislation also includes “ourlong-sought NARAB proposal to create a uniform agent/brokernonresident licensure clearinghouse.”

Wood said the sunset provision is not part of the legislationthat has cleared the Financial Services Committee, “and we willstrongly push to eliminate the sunset provision.

“The good news, however, is that if a TRIA compromise betweenthe two chambers is reached this year, it is virtually certain thatNARAB will be created,” Wood said.