Posted: 6/27/2012
2013 FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE & REGULATORY PRIORITY ISSUES
To see a list of all state and federal issues which have the potential to affect NAMIC members companies, and to learn more about them, please visit the Legislative & Regulatory Issues page.
TERRORISM RISK INSURANCE ACT
NAMIC strongly supports the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program and believes it is vital for protecting businesses and a stable economy, particularly in certain high-risk locations where availability of terrorism risk insurance remains constrained. The program is will expire at the end of 2014 and NAMIC will be working to ensure that it continues to maintain a healthy terrorism risk insurance market. Read more >>
DISPARATE IMPACT
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is seeking to target homeowners insurers with its implementation of the Discriminatory Effects Standard in the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination against any person in the provision of housing. HUD asserts that it has long interpreted the FHA to permit disparate-impact claims (discrimination in effect) even where there has been no intent to discriminate, and have held that the Act is violated by facially neutral practices that have a disparate impact on protected classes. In a recent rulemaking, HUD stated that it would apply this uniform standard to “the provision and pricing of homeowner’s insurance.” NAMIC is on the front lines fighting to prevent HUD from inappropriately becoming involved in regulating the underwriting of insurance which clearly exceeds its legal authority. Read more >>
BUILDING CODES
NAMIC continues to urge Congress to pass legislation incentivizing the adoption of statewide, nationally recognized building codes. Considering the devastating natural disasters around the world in the last two years alone, NAMIC is promoting common-sense mitigation measures to enhance the current infrastructure and strengthen preparedness for natural disasters. Read more >>
PARTS ACT
Automobile manufacturers have been recently working to eliminate alternative repair parts from the market by obtaining design patents on each individual crash part, and banning competition through the enforcement of these patents. NAMIC has worked to pass the PARTS Act, which would preserve competition in the aftermarket auto parts market, helping ensure savings for consumers of more than $2.2 billion annually. Read more >>
INSURANCE REGULATION
NAMIC is committed to preventing needless, onerous, and duplicative regulation of property/casualty insurance by the federal government. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act significantly altered the regulatory landscape in Washington by establishing the Federal Insurance Office (FIO), a non-regulatory federal agency, the Financial Stability Oversight Committee, which will designate so called “Systemically Important Financial Institutions”, the Office of Financial Research, to gather data and provide research on the financial sector, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), to oversee consumer-related financial issues. NAMIC continues to work to ensure that these new agencies do not negatively impact our industry and are barred from asserting regulatory authority over property/casualty insurers.
TAX REFORM
As policymakers prepare to debate comprehensive tax reform for the first time in more than 26 years, it is imperative that decision makers understand the business of property/casualty insurance and its fundamental differences from other financial services sectors. NAMIC supports comprehensive tax reform designed to reduce complexity, lower rates, increase international competitiveness and provide certainty to the U.S. tax system. The overall goals of any tax reform effort should be to strengthen U.S. economic growth, and enhance the competitiveness of U.S.-based companies in U.S. and international markets. Read more >>