Sununu Says House Will Soon Introduce OFC Bill

Bipartisan legislation calling for creation of an optional federal charter will soon be introduced in the House, one of the sponsors of such legislation in the Senate said today.

In disclosing the plans of Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., to introduce such legislation, Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., said the lawmakers should work to maintain the broad focus of the Senate optional federal charter legislation when they introduce their version.

Sen. Sununu made his comments in a speech at a Washington meeting of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, based in Des Plaines, Ill.

A number of lobbyists and congressional staffers confirmed the plans of Royce and Kanjorski, but the offices of these representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment on the substance of their bill and when they plan to introduce it.

Sen. Sununu said that limiting the optional federal charter solely to life insurance, as has been suggested, would limit the debate on the issue and send a bad signal that sponsors would accept passing anything over failing with a proper bill.

“I don’t think it should be, and I don’t think it needs to be” only for life insurance when introduced in the House, Sen. Sununu said.

Sen. Sununu added that he believed the efforts to limit the proposal were not coming from the House sponsors, saying, “I don’t think that’s their thinking,” but there might be others encouraging the limitation.

“That attitude suggests that the goal is just to get something passed, rather than a framework that works for thousands of consumers and the industry,” he said.

Part of the bill’s potential success, Sen. Sununu said, is that it “applies broadly rather than narrowly,” and that inclusion of property and casualty lines will increase the number involved in the debate over a federal solution.