Bill to establish Office of Insurance Information reintroduced

Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, D-Pa., today reintroduced the Insurance Information Act of 2009, which would establish a federal Office of Insurance Information. In the bill, Mr. Kanjorski, chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises, calls for the Office of Insurance Information to be placed inside the Department of the Treasury, where it would provide the Obama administration and Congress with input on insurance regulation. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., a ranking minority member of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, has joined him as a co-sponsor of the bill, along with six other members of the House Financial Services Committee. If passed, the bill — H.R. 2609 — would allow the Office of Insurance Information to collect and study insurance data, advise the Treasury Department on domestic and international policy issues, report to Congress every two years and create federal policies related to international insurance issues. The bill would also build an advisory group of regulators and consumer groups to inform the leader of the insurance information office. Mr. Kanjorski first proposed the creation of a federal insurance information office last spring. Although the bill picked up momentum last summer, meeting the approval of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the bill hit a wall when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pulled it from consideration.