NU Online News Service, MAY 26, 3:34 p.m.EDT

WASHINGTON–Legislation that would create an Office ofInsurance Information within the Treasury Department has beenreintroduced with little fanfare by Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa.

Two property-casualty insurance trade groups–the NationalAssociation of Mutual Insurance Companies and the AmericanInsurance Association–today voiced support for the legislation,which Rep. Kanjorski submitted on Friday.

The bill, H.R. 2609, is the same bill Rep. Kanjorski introducedlast year but which died on the House floor in mid-September onorders from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Six members of the House Financial Services Committee, includingRep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., ranking member of the House FinancialServices Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, joined asoriginal co-sponsors of the bill.

Other co-sponsors include Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill.; Rep.Michael Capuano, D-Mass.; Rep. Dennis, Moore, D-Kan.; Rep. DavidScott, D-Ga.; and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif.

It is being introduced as the Obama administration prepares topropose changes in the overall financial regulatory system.

In testimony before a House Appropriations Committeesubcommittee last Thursday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithnersaid a broad set of regulatory change proposals will be unveiledsoon, and a new entity to protect consumers of financial productscould be part of the package.

A spokesman for the Treasury Department added that theadministration has not yet determined whether insurance productswould be among the products that would come under the umbrella ofthe new consumer protection entity.

Leigh Ann Pusey, president of the American InsuranceAssociation, said that setting up a federal Office of InsuranceInformation "could be a tremendously valuable tool in helpingcollect and analyze appropriate data on insurance-related issues atthe national level."

She also noted that "to the extent the establishment of such anoffice helps create federal insurance expertise and facilitates auniform national policy on domestic and international insuranceissues, it is sorely needed."

Jimi Grande, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companiesvice president, federal and political affairs, said that NAMIC is"pleased" to see the bill introduced.

"A properly constructed OII will help bring a more focusedunderstanding of insurance matters to federal policymakers andwould not preempt any of the sound solvency and consumerprotections that the national system of state-based insuranceregulation provides.

Eli Lehrer, a senior fellow at the Competitive EnterpriseInstitute, called the OII bill "simply a common-sense measure." Hesaid the federal government, "if nothing else, needs a repositoryof expertise about insurance. That's been lacking to date."

H.R. 2609 is based on a recommendation contained in a Blueprinton Financial Modernization prepared by the Treasury Departmentunder the guidance of then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. It wasreleased in March 2008.

"While most other pieces of the national economy have some sortof knowledge center within the federal government, insurancecurrently stands without a central office," Rep. Kanjorski said ina statement.

As proposed in the legislation, an OII would collect and analyzedata on insurance; advise the Secretary of the Treasury on majordomestic and international policy issues; report to Congress everytwo years; establish federal policy on international insurancematters; and ensure that state insurance laws remain consistentwith federal policy in coordinating international tradeagreements.

The bill would also establish an advisory group to help informand advise the head of the insurance information office. Thoserepresented in this group would include state regulators, consumergroups and other parties in the insurance industry.

Ben McKay, Property Casualty Insurers Association of Americavice president, federal government affairs, said the PCI is"pleased to see the helpful clarifications of the preemptionprovisions in the new OII legislation. Though the bill was justintroduced last week, however, we are still reviewing it, and lookforward to working with Chairman Kanjorski after the Memorial Dayrecess."

Charles E. Symington, Jr., Independent Insurance Agents &Brokers of America senior vice president, government affairs, saidIIABA "believes that the Insurance Information Act is a goodexample of targeted legislative reform – it is an efficient andpragmatic measure that fills the void of insurance expertise at thefederal level and helps solve the problems faced by insuranceindustry participants in the global economy without the need tocreate a federal insurance regulator."