Legislation designed to ease the regulatory burdens on surplus lines was approved by a House Financial Services subcommittee July 19.
The bill is likely to be taken up on the House floor in September, industry officials said.
Although the measure was approved by a voice vote with no opposition, some members argued that more work needs to be done on the bill to alleviate the concerns of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., including others.
Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., the chairman of the subcommittee, said the bill “focuses on two specific sectors of the market that are, in my opinion, in need of reform.” Specifically, he said, the bill works to help streamline the surplus lines market and to protect reinsurance arbitration agreements from some state regulators, he said, adding some have been trying to apply their state’s laws extraterritorially.