NU Online News Service, Feb. 17, 3:16 p.m.EST

A Senate bill in the Washington State Legislature to bancredit-based insurance scoring failed to come to a vote on theSenate floor before a deadline for moving legislation expired.

The demise of the Senate measure came weeks after a similar billin the House died in committee.

Both bills were introduced at the request of State InsuranceCommissioner Mike Kreidler.

Kenton Brine, assistant vice president, Northwest region for theProperty Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), said theHouse bill, HB 2513, failed Feb. 2 to win release from the HouseCommittee on Financial Institutions and Insurance on a 6-4vote.

In the Senate, the body did not have enough votes to pass thebill, SB 6252, before a February 16 cutoff date to get bills out oftheir house of origin, and so it never came to a vote of the fullSenate, Mr. Brine said.

Stephanie Marquis, spokesperson for the Washington State Officeof the Insurance Commissioner, said the industry fought hard todefeat the measure, resulting in a lack of votes to move the billout of rules.

The Senate bill did make it out of committee, although ChristianRataj, Western state affairs manager for the National Associationof Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), noted that it was broughtbefore the Senate Committee on Labor and Commerce & ConsumerProtection, rather than the Financial Institutions, Housing andInsurance Committee where insurance-related bills usuallyoriginate.

According to Mr. Brine, that panel was purposely chosen to getaround the Insurance Committee, where he said it was known thecommittee chair did not favor a credit scoring ban.

Added Mr. Rataj, "Clearly politics is what politics is."

But he also praised the committees that took up the bills fortheir respective houses, stating, "I think both committeesthoroughly evaluated the issue."

Ultimately, Mr. Rataj said the legislature looked past the"rhetoric and unfounded claims that credit-based insurance scoringis unfair."

Ms. Marquis said there is currently no plan for any action oncredit scoring from the regulatory end, stating that there neededto be a change in the state's law to prohibit the practice.

For Mr. Brine, the issue should be dead in the region. "I don'tknow how much more repudiation is necessary in the Northwest," hesaid, noting that the bills in Washington failed to pass withDemocratic supermajorities in the House and Senate, a Democraticgovernor, and a Democratic insurance commissioner. He also pointedto a 2006 ballot measure in Oregon in which a credit scoring banwas voted down by voters.