[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8576 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 8576

  To require the Government Accountability Office to conduct biennial 
  studies of personal private automobile insurance coverage, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 9, 2020

Ms. Tlaib (for herself, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Mr. Takano, and Mr. Garcia 
 of Illinois) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To require the Government Accountability Office to conduct biennial 
  studies of personal private automobile insurance coverage, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Prevent Auto Insurance 
Discrimination Study Act of 2020'' or the ``PAID Study Act of 2020''.

SEC. 2. BIENNIAL STUDIES OF PERSONAL PRIVATE AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE.

    (a) Biennial Studies.--The Comptroller General of the United States 
(in this section referred to as the ``Comptroller General'') shall, not 
later than the expiration of the 2-year period beginning on the date of 
the enactment of this Act and not less often than every 2 years 
thereafter, conduct a study under this section that--
            (1) identifies non-driving related underwriting factors 
        used by private passenger automobile insurers and the extent to 
        which each such underwriting factor impacts the final rate for 
        an insured and an insured's placement in an insurer's various 
        companies and rating tiers;
            (2) identifies existing controls and current automobile 
        insurer practices to prevent discriminatory pricing of 
        automobile insurance coverage, including any controls to 
        identify and prevent discrimination through the use of pricing 
        algorithms;
            (3) evaluates the presence or absence of disparate impact 
        in private passenger automobile insurance premiums, risk 
        classifications, and an insurer's company or tier placement 
        based on non-driving related factors, including examining how 
        such premiums are impacted by factors such as zip code, race, 
        religion, national origin, sexual orientation, geographic area, 
        gender, marital status, occupation, occupation status, level of 
        education, consumer credit score and history, and homeownership 
        status;
            (4) assesses the extent to which States consistently 
        determine what is unfairly discriminatory in private passenger 
        automobile insurance pricing, risk classifications, and product 
        offerings and what standards are used by State insurance 
        regulators to make such a determination for oversight and 
        enforcement purposes;
            (5) determines the manner and frequency with which State 
        insurance regulators identify questionable underwriting and 
        rating practices in the provision of private passenger 
        automobile insurance coverage and take actions to address 
        findings of noncompliance with State law and ensure that rates 
        are not excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory, 
        including analyzing any problems and deficiencies identified 
        among State insurance regulators.
    (b) Preliminary Analysis.--Not later than the expiration of the 12-
month period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Comptroller General shall submit to the Congress preliminary analysis 
based on the study conducted pursuant to subsection (a) that, for 
private passenger automobile insurance--
            (1) compares premium rates for such coverage for similar 
        drivers with different non-driving characteristics described in 
        subsection (a)(3) and other such characteristics as the 
        Comptroller General considers appropriate;
            (2) evaluates the use of data related to non-driving 
        characteristics in underwriting and pricing assistance and 
        premium calculations; and
            (3) determines the extent to which any of the research 
        indicates a disparate impact on protected classes of people 
        resulting from the use of non-driving rating and underwriting 
        factors.
    (c) Obtaining Insurer Information.--
            (1) In general.--The Comptroller General shall obtain and 
        utilize in each study under this section--
                    (A) data from insurers that identifies, for the 
                preceding year--
                            (i) premiums charged and premiums quoted 
                        for policyholders and applicants;
                            (ii) base rates, other rating factors, and 
                        risk classifications used for underwriting and 
                        pricing such insurance, whether in the form of 
                        underwriting guidelines, tier placement 
                        factors, rating factors, or other terminology;
                            (iii) the sources and uses of insurance and 
                        non-insurance data used for risk classification 
                        and pricing;
                            (iv) the census tract of the place garaging 
                        of the insured vehicle; and
                            (v) insurer rating algorithms and non-
                        standard data used by the insurers; and
                    (B) information and data from third party vendors 
                providing pricing assistance algorithms and data to 
                insurers and the insurance industry.
            (2) Authority; limitations.--In the collection of data and 
        information pursuant to paragraph (1)--
                    (A) the provisions of section 313(e) of title 31, 
                United States Code, that are applicable to the Director 
                of the Federal Insurance Office of the Department of 
                the Treasury, to the Federal Insurance Office, and to 
                data and information collected pursuant to such section 
                shall apply to the Comptroller General, the Government 
                Accountability Office, and to data and information 
                collected pursuant to paragraph (1) of this subsection, 
                respectively; and
                    (B) any Federal agency, State insurance regulator 
                or regulatory agency, other publicly available source, 
                insurer, or third party vendor from which data and 
                information is requested shall provide such data and 
                information to the Comptroller General not later than 
                the expiration of the 90-day period that begins upon 
                receipt of such request.
            (3) Discretion.--Paragraph (1) may not be construed to 
        require the Comptroller General collect information and data 
        described in such paragraph in comprehensive manner and the 
        Comptroller General may, in the sole discretion of the 
        Comptroller General collect as much information as the 
        Comptroller General considers necessary to obtain an accurate 
        sample with respect to insurers or areas that is sufficient to 
        comply with the requirements of subsection (a).
    (d) Obtaining Other Information.--The Comptroller General shall 
obtain and utilize in each study under this section socioeconomic data 
from sources other than insurers, including data from the Bureau of the 
Census, Current Population Survey and American Community Survey, and 
data from any reviews of automobile insurance premiums and rates 
conducted by State insurance regulator or regulatory agency, 
appropriate to identify and analyze, for the preceding year--
            (1) socioeconomic characteristics relating to risk 
        classifications associated with greater or lesser premium 
        charges;
            (2) zip codes, geographic areas, and communities associated 
        with greater or lesser premium charges;
            (3) zip codes, geographic areas, and communities having 
        more or fewer choices for standard and preferred private 
        passenger automobile insurance products and premiums;
            (4) zip codes, geographic areas, and communities in which 
        the sale of non-standard insurance, the use of automobile 
        insurance premium financing, the use of non-voluntary 
        automobile insurance, the rates of uninsured motorists, and 
        civil and criminal actions for failure to maintain insurance 
        are greatest;
            (5) zip codes, geographic areas, and communities having 
        greater or fewer insurance producer locations that provide 
        standard/preferred options as compared to non-standard options; 
        and
            (6) zip codes, geographic areas, and communities in which 
        the offer of and use of telematics and other newer data-driven 
        technologies is greater or lesser.
    (e) Evaluation of Information.--In conducting each study under this 
section, the Comptroller General shall evaluate the presence or absence 
of disparate impact in private passenger automobile insurance pricing, 
risk classifications, and product offerings based on race, religion, 
national origin, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, 
occupation, occupation status, level of education, consumer credit 
score, and homeownership status, and shall employ multi-variate 
statistical analysis to conduct such analysis.
    (f) Limitation.--In conducting each study under this section, the 
Comptroller General may not engage in or include in the study any 
analysis of the reasonableness of premiums charged to claims paid or 
incurred.
    (g) Biennial Reports.--For each study required to be conducted 
pursuant to subsection (a), the Comptroller General shall submit a 
report to the Congress describing the study conducted, the analysis 
conducted under the study, and any conclusions reached pursuant to the 
study and analysis. The report for each such study shall be submitted 
not later than the deadline under subsection (a) for completion of the 
study.
    (h) Availability of Information.--Upon submitting each report to 
the Congress pursuant to subsection (g), the Comptroller General shall 
make publicly available all information collected pursuant to this 
section for such report and other information used in conducting the 
study under this section for such report, except that any information 
made publicly available may not contain any personally identifiable 
information, nor any information that could identify individual 
insureds or applicants, under private passenger automobile insurance 
for which such information is collected.
    (i) Considerations in Approving Premium Rates.--Each State 
insurance regulatory officer or agency shall take into consideration 
the reports submitted pursuant to subsection (a) in establishing and 
approving premium rates for private passenger automobile insurance 
coverage.
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