Sen. Christopher Dodd says Congress really could pass a federal Office of Insurance Information bill this year.
H.R. 5840, a bill endorsed by the House Financial Services Committee capital markets subcommittee earlier this month, would create an OII within the U.S. Treasury Department.
Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, talked about the bill today during a committee hearing on insurance regulation.
Dodd said he was surprised by the level of insurance industry interest in legislation giving the federal government a role in insurance regulation, and the growing interest in giving insurers the option of choosing between the traditional state insurance regulation system and a new federal regulation system.
“A few years ago, even the notion of a federal charter would have been meet with vehement opposition,” Dodd said. “It was the third rail.”
Dodd said he always felt a case could be made for an OFC system for life but has believed that differences in state tort laws would make creating an OFC system more difficult on the p-c side.