Transparent Insurance Standards Act of 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. I thank my fellow subcommittee chairman for working with me to protect the State-based insurance regulatory model that has served our Nation so well for 150 years.

To my colleague from New York, I am very comfortable with this bill and with the underlying philosophy that has brought us here.

Mr. Speaker, I am a former State representative in the Michigan Legislature, and I know firsthand that Michigan does a better job of protecting policyholders within their borders than the Federal Government does or could. Even more so, Michigan certainly knows how to maintain a robust insurance marketplace that works for Michigan customers. Additionally, Michigan serves as an entry point for several foreign companies which then come into the U.S. marketplace.

However, there are bureaucrats in Washington who believe that they know best. The Dodd-Frank Act significantly expanded the Federal Government's role in the insurance marketplace by creating the Federal Insurance Office and charging the Director with representing the U.S. during the negotiations of international agreements. At the same time, the Dodd-Frank Act changed domestic insurance regulation, which also led to the changes in U.S. participation at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, or IAIS.

The IAIS develops international insurance regulations for its 190 jurisdictions in more than 140 countries to then adopt those. I am concerned that this could influence the U.S. to replace the State-based insurance regulatory model with international standards that were created by unelected European bureaucrats.

Mr. Speaker, our States are, as Justice Brandeis so eloquently coined, ``laboratories of democracy;'' and in his words that means that a ``State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.''

I can't think of a better example of a successful experiment than the State-based insurance regulatory system, especially in my home State of Michigan. That is why the protections provided in the Transparent Insurance Standards Act are so vitally important.

The straightforward bill simply gives the States and Congress the opportunity to comment on any international insurance standard before it may be adopted.

I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this very, very important bill and support our system that has existed for 150 years.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source