U.S. Windstorm Bill Is DOA In Senate, Says Dale

WASHINGTON--George Dale, Mississippi's outgoing insurance commissioner said he believes partisan politics in the U.S. Senate will derail House legislation passed last week adding wind coverage to the National Flood Insurance Program.

In an interview, Mr. Dale also said until Hurricane Katrina in 2005 he had not known that homeowners policies in Mississippi contained so-called "anti-concurrent" language, specifying that if any part of a loss stems from a source that is not covered by the policy, like flood, then the insurer is not liable for any part of the loss.

He said he issued an order barring the language from being used, but said that since federal courts have said use of the language is appropriate, the state will have to re-examine its policy.

Mr. Dale also touched on what he regarded as the "unfair" political system which allows third parties to raise money used for attack ads against candidates who don't use what he termed such "unethical" tactics, as well as describing the tactics as "money-laundering."

"The bottom line is that it allowed one person (Richard Scruggs) to buy a 'down ticket' office in Mississippi for an individual he wanted," he said. "Down ticket" is a lower level position, such as insurance commissioner, state auditor and state agricultural commissioner, in Mississippi, Mr. Dale explained.

Mr. Scruggs was a big supporter of Gary Anderson, who defeated Mr. Dale in the Democratic primary in August by promising not to take money from the insurance industry. Mr. Dale has served as insurance commissioner since 1976.

There was no immediate response to a request for comment from Mr. Scruggs.

Mr. Scruggs has acted as the lawyer for many people who have sued insurance companies for their failure to pay claims resulting from Hurricane Katrina based on the anti-concurrent language.

Mr. Scruggs is also the brother-in-law of Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who lost his vacation home when Hurricane Katrina hit, but who has had difficulty in getting what he believed was adequate payment on his claim from State Farm. The case was settled in June.

Sen. Lott has railed against the insurance industry for its delays in paying claims, as well as its alleged decision, in his view, to improperly pass off damage from wind as flooding loss covered by the NFIP.

He said the lessons he learned from the election is that "don't overreact to pressure and don't commit to do things you can't do."

Regarding Sen. Lott, he said, "Some of the positions he has taken have not been well-received in Mississippi. But I think he is a great guy."

Mr. Anderson depicted Mr. Dale as too friendly with the insurance industry and unresponsive to the needs of homeowners hurt by the 2005 hurricane.

He made his comments while attending the fall meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which ends today.

Regarding the all-perils bill passed by the House on Thursday, he said, "It's evident that the federal government is going to have to help people in disaster-prone areas or they are not going to be able to afford to live there."

But, he added, the legislation drafted by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Mississippi, is unlikely to pass the Senate because while the bill says the program must be actuarially sound, it does not address the area of cost. "If it is actuarially sound, it will be unaffordable," he explained. "And partisan politics will win out."

"I predict it will be defeated in the Senate, and Democrats will then blame it on the Republicans and President Bush," he said

"When Hurricane Katrina hit, the NFIP had to go to Congress twice to borrow money to pay the claims resulting from the hurricane," Mr. Dale said. "But, since Rep. Taylor's NFIP bill does not address the issue of cost, what have you accomplished?"

At the same time, he said Congress "would be well-served to deal with this affordability issue on a bipartisan basis."

He added, "Personally, I don't like rolling out ideas without talking about all sides of an idea, both good and bad."

The commissioner said that after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he called insurance companies in and asked them not to rely on the anti-concurrent language, and to pay claims promptly.

He explained that the problems of flood and water had not come up between Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Katrina, in 2005. The commissioner in office when Hurricane Camille hit did not run for re-election, he said.

Moreover, he said, the Federal Emergency Management Agency turned down his request for a grant to have outside adjusters audit insurance companies to ensure "that our bulletin outlawing use of anti-concurrent language was abided by."

"Hundreds of policies are filed with the department by hundreds of companies, and there is no way the commissioner can know all the verbiage in them," he said. "We rely on the staff for that, and they apparently didn't see a problem with the language."