A Message from PIA's President

August 2008

There is no other insurance association that is more steadfast in opposition to federal regulation of insurance than PIA. So when legislation started moving earlier this year that threatened to undermine the authority of the states to regulate the business of insurance, there was no question what we would do: PIA spoke up clearly in opposition.

The Insurance Information Act of 2008 (H.R. 5840) started out as a bill to create an information resource for members of Congress on insurance matters. But as the weeks went by, it evolved into a platform that could be used — as suggested in the Treasury Department’s report on regulatory modernization — to “prepare” the insurance industry to be made part of an integrated financial services structure with banking and securities, all regulated by one federal regulator.

As an independent insurance agent, I resent anyone saying they will “prepare” me for anything that threatens my ability to succeed in my chosen business. Creating a federal or dual state/federal regulatory system by letting the federal government ride roughshod over our state Insurance Commissioners is a significant threat to Main Street agents.

It is PIA’s responsibility to let our members and colleagues know what is really going on.

The supporters of federal regulation of insurance know that they cannot win a straightforward, up-or-down vote in Congress. So, they have decided to try to circumvent the opposition through stealth. First, they break up their proposals into small pieces that, when viewed separately, do not federalize insurance regulation. But when passed and then connected, presto, federalization takes place, the state DOIs are out of business and the state premium taxes go to Washington, D.C.

And to smooth the way, they cut side deals that effectively neutralize groups whose members oppose all of this, with promises of “a seat at the table.”

There, I’ve said it.  So far, I haven’t been struck down by lightening.

One of PIA’s strengths as an association is the fact that we are member-driven. PIA is not a top-down organization; our power comes from our grassroots. Main Street insurance agents are individuals whose businesses are built on their core values of honesty, integrity and individual responsibility. That’s why the attempt to ban our contingent commissions when we did nothing wrong is so offensive.

It is critical that all PIA affiliates continue to work with their state Departments of Insurance to bring about the needed modernization of the state system of insurance regulation at the state level, in order to ensure that we don’t end up with federal regulation by default.

Telling the truth may be unusual in Washington, D.C., but for PIA members, it is part of who we are.

President Harry S. Truman was giving a speech once in which he was lambasting Congress. A person in the crowd shouted, “Give ‘em Hell!” To which President Truman responded, “I just tell the truth, and they think it’s Hell!”

Robert P. Page
President