Proposed cuts for the U.S. Agriculture Department's subsidy to the crop insurance program are excessive and will likely lead to more consolidation in a shrinking private crop insurance industry, an insurers' representative told the agency.

A health insurance trade group urged Democrats to focus their health care reform legislation efforts on cost containment and preserving the current role of agents, brokers and consultants.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke defended his agency's actions today in bailing out American International Group and asked the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study of its decisions involving AIG.

The fate of health care reform legislation appears to be hanging in the balance in the wake of the election of a Republican from Massachusetts to the Senate.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke defended his agency's actions in bailing out American International Group and asked the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study of its decisions involving AIG.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee, has asked officials to detail how an American International Group executive who resigned is entitled to a multimillion-dollar severance agreement.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been scheduled to testify before a House committee concerning controversial dealings between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and American International Insurance.

Congressional negotiators on a health care measure have indicated that they hope to present a compromise bill sometime this week to the Congressional Budget Office for a final evaluation of its costs.