[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 114 (Friday, July 30, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S6548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was 
referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-136. A resolution adopted by the Legislature of the 
     State of Minnesota expressing its strong opposition to the 
     creation of a federal insurance charter as proposed in S. 40/
     H.R. 3200 and any other such federal legislation that would 
     threaten the power of the state legislatures, governors, 
     insurance commissioners, and attorneys general to oversee, 
     regulate, and investigate the business of insurance, and to 
     protect consumers; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 
     Urban Affairs.

                            Resolution No. 3

       Whereas, the current financial crisis facing the United 
     States and the world is causing Congress and the 
     Administration to review the current regulatory structure 
     presently in force with the object of revising it; and
       Whereas, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, 
     Comptroller of the Currency, Securities and Exchange 
     Commission, and other federal regulatory institutions failed 
     their responsibility, causing great harm to the financial 
     system of the United States; and
       Whereas, the prime example of the failure of the federal 
     regulatory institutions to exercise their responsibility is 
     AIG; and
       Whereas, the failure of AIG has been caused by the actions 
     and activities of its holding company, the regulation of 
     which is the sole responsibility of the federal government; 
     and
       Whereas, the regulation of AIG's insurance company 
     subsidiaries has been the responsibility of the state 
     regulators who have fulfilled their responsibilities, which 
     is demonstrated by the fact that none of the approximately 
     170 insurance subsidiaries has failed; and
       Whereas, regulation, oversight, and consumer protection 
     have traditionally and historically been powers reserved to 
     state governments under the McCarron-Ferguson Act of 1945; 
     and
       Whereas, state legislatures are more responsive to the 
     needs of their constituents and the need for insurance 
     products and regulation to meet their state's unique market 
     demands; and
       Whereas, many states, including Minnesota, have recently 
     enacted and amended state insurance laws to modernize market 
     regulation and provide insurers with greater ability to 
     respond to changes in market conditions; and
       Whereas, state legislatures, the National Conference of 
     Insurance Legislators (NCOIL), the National Association of 
     Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), and the National Conference 
     of State Legislators (NCSL) continue to address uniformity 
     issues between states by the adoption of model laws that 
     address market conduct, product approval, agent and company 
     licensing, and rate deregulation; and
       Whereas, new federal legislation to create a national 
     insurance charter is expected to be introduced in 2009 that 
     will have the potential to fundamentally alter the role of 
     state governments in the insurance industry, thereby creating 
     an unwieldy and unnecessary federal bureaucracy proposed 
     without consumer and constituent demand; and
       Whereas, such initiatives as S. 40/H.R. 3200--the National 
     Insurance Act of 2007--proposed optional federal charter 
     legislation may bifurcate insurance regulation and result in 
     a labyrinth of federal and state directives that would 
     promote ambiguity and confusion among consumers; and
       Whereas, bills such as S. 40/H.R. 3200 would allow 
     insurance companies choosing a federal charter to avoid state 
     insurance regulatory oversight and evade important state 
     consumer protections; and
       Whereas, the mechanism that would have been set up under S. 
     40/H.R. 3200 cannot respond to the unique insurance market 
     dynamics and local constituent concerns present in each of 
     the 50 states as state regulation does; and
       Whereas, bills such as S. 40/H.R. 3200 have the potential 
     to compromise state guaranty fund coverage, and employers 
     could end up absorbing losses otherwise covered by these 
     safety nets for businesses affected by insolvencies; and
       Whereas, bills such as S. 40/H.R. 3200 would ultimately 
     impose the costs of a new and needless federal bureaucracy 
     upon businesses and the public; and
       Whereas, many state governments derive general revenue 
     dollars from the regulation of the business of insurance, 
     including nearly $14 billion in premium taxes and $2.7 
     billion in fees and assessments generated in 2006--of which 
     the state of Minnesota generated over $346 million; and
       Whereas, bills such as S. 40/H.R. 3200 threaten the loss of 
     over $10 million in state revenues from insurance fees and 
     assessments, thereby putting at risk the funding of a wide 
     array of essential state services; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota, 
     That it joins the National Conference of Insurance 
     Legislators in expressing its strong opposition to creation 
     of a federal insurance charter as proposed in S. 40/H.R. 3200 
     and any other such federal legislation that would threaten 
     the power of state legislatures, governors, insurance 
     commissioners, and attorneys general to oversee, regulate, 
     and investigate the business of insurance, and to protect 
     consumers; and be it further
       Resolved, That the Secretary of State of the State of 
     Minnesota is directed to prepare copies of this memorial and 
     transmit them to the President and the Secretary of the 
     United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the United 
     States House of Representatives, the chair and members of the 
     United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban 
     Affairs, the chair and members of the United States House of 
     Representatives Committee on Financial Services, and 
     Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in Congress.

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