By
As a producer who sells employee benefits, you know your sales depend heavily on the activities of Congress, the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. Department of Labor and a variety of state legislatures and state regulatory agencies.
One new paragraph in one existing regulation could create hours of irritating paperwork or open up huge new opportunities.
One of the best ways to keep up is to reader publications such as National Underwriter and to join agent and broker trade groups.
Another way is to use the Web to track regulatory and legislative developments yourself.
Here are some sites you should bookmark.
![](https://images.lifehealthpro.com/lifehealthpro/historical/lifeandhealthinsurancenews/Weekly Issues/Issues/2004/30/text_chart.gif)
U.S. Senate http://www.senate.gov
U.S. House of Representatives http://www.house.gov
Look in the committee sections for hearing schedules and collections of testimony accumulated during past hearings.
Federal legislation http://thomas.loc.gov
THOMAS, a site maintained by the Library of Congress, gives the text of current bills and their status.
Comprehensive coverage of federal bills http://www.c-span.org
In addition to televising and Webcasting House and Senate sessions, C-SPAN runs a Web site that has links to many resources. The “Capitol Spotlight” section offers stories about current bills and a list of “Bills to Watch.”
Regulations proposed by all federal agencies http://www.regulations.gov
The Employee Benefits Security Administration – http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. – http://www.pbgc.gov/
The PBGC is a government-sponsored corporation that backs U.S. defined benefit pension plans. Its site is a good source of information about traditional pension plans.
State legislative proposals http://www.ncoil.org
State regulatory proposals – http://www.naic.org