PCI Merger Boosts Clout In Congress
Washington
When Carl Parks and the federal government affairs staff at the new Property-Casualty Insurers Association of America walk the hallways on Capitol Hill, they can justifiably claim to represent constituents of just about every member of Congress.
"We have at least one company in every state," Mr. Parks, PCIs senior vice president of federal affairs, told National Underwriter. "We have a direct employee of one of our members in almost every Congressional district. This gives us a great capability to impact legislation."
PCI, the Des Plaines, Ill.-based association formed by the merger of the National Association of Independent Insurers and the Alliance of American Insurers, will be able to advance its members government affairs agenda with a merged staff and a growing Political Action Committee at a time when Congress and the federal regulatory agencies have a heightened interest in issues important to the p-c industry, according to Mr. Parks.
PCI, including Mr. Parks (previously senior vice president with NAII), has seven full-time lobbyists, including David Farmer, who was the long-time top lobbyist for the Alliance and a frequent commentator on Congressional issues. In addition, Mr. Parks said PCI already has the largest p-c insurer PAC (now about $500,000), and he hopes to see robust growth.
It is important, he added, to understand the nature of PAC contributions, which represent money from individuals, not corporationsa fact that is frequently misunderstood, according to Mr. Parks.
Individual employees of the member companies, he noted, write checks to maintain the associations advocacy efforts. This is a fundamental sign, he said, of membership interest and support.
He said that this enhanced support will be of great benefit to members, who face an increasingly diverse array of legislative issuesnot only those that directly affect p-c insurers, but related ones such as employee-employer relations and pensions.
In addition, he said, on the regulatory front, PCI will have greater capacity to participate in rulemaking under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act and the USA Patriot Act.
He noted that FCRA reauthorization mandates a Federal Trade Commission study on the impact of insurance credit scoring on the availability of credit. PCI, he said, will be very active on these regulatory issues and also plans a very aggressive campaign to inform members of Congress and their staff about the new association.
PCI, he noted, represents a new brand identification. He said he is very happy with the new name because it clearly and distinctly defines who the association representsnamely, p-c insurers.
Mr. Parks said the merger is an easy fit legislatively, and that he and Mr. Farmer are long-time personal friends and have worked well together for several years.
There traditionally have not been major differences between NAII and the Alliance on most issues, but he noted it will be up to the new board of directors to determine PCIs positions on legislation.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, January 16, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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