HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 51
(By Delegates Boggs, Perry, Kominar, Barker, Cann, Ennis,
Hartman, Mahan, Michael, Moore, Pethtel, Staggers, Varner,
Walters and White)
Urging the United States Congress to protect state regulation of
the business of insurance.
Whereas, State insurance regulators have ensured the solvency
of this nation's insurers, implemented a comprehensive consumer
protection scheme, licensed insurance companies and agents, and
supervised other areas of insurance business for over one hundred
fifty years; and
Whereas, State insurance regulation has been largely successful
and effective, has adapted to changes in the marketplace, and
encourages innovation; and
Whereas, State legislatures and state insurance regulators are
more responsive to the needs of consumers and are more aware of and
responsive to the unique characteristics and demands of individual
states; and
Whereas, Governors, State Legislators, and insurance
commissioners have acknowledged the need to streamline and simplify
insurance regulation and are working to enact reforms to remedy the unnecessary differences in state laws and eliminate requirements
that prevent insurers and agents from serving the needs of
insurance consumers in an effective and timely manner; and
Whereas, Many states, including West Virginia, regularly update
state insurance laws and have recently enacted legislation that
enables the insurance industry to more effectively respond to
changing market conditions; and
Whereas, The 111
th Congress of the United States is expected to
consider legislation that would establish an entirely new insurance
regulatory system at the federal level and threaten the continued
viability of the state system in the process; and
Whereas, A new and untested federal insurance regulatory system
would almost certainly be more remote and politicized and less
accessible and responsive than the current state system; and
Whereas, If enacted by the Congress of the United States, these
proposals would bifurcate insurance regulation between the states
and federal government, undermining the state system of consumer
protections and financial surveillance, as well as inevitably
causing a loss of jobs, taxes, fees and other vital and necessary
state revenues needed to effectively regulate the insurance market
and provide revenues to support residual market programs; and
Whereas, A dual regulatory structure will create consumer
confusion and result in a regulatory race to bottom; and
Whereas, Insurance companies paid approximately $105 million in premium taxes to West Virginia in 2006, and a federalization of
insurance could put these payments and other fees and revenues at
risk; therefore, be it
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the 79
th Legislature of the State of West Virginia hereby
respectfully urges the Congress of the United States of America to
oppose any proposed laws that would establish a federal insurance
regulatory system or otherwise alter the McCarran-Ferguson Act;
and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates
forward certified copies of this resolution to the President of the
United States, the Speaker of the United States House of
Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, the
Members of the United States House Financial Services Committee,
the Members of the United States Senate Banking, Housing and Urban
Affairs Committee, the United States Secretary of the Treasury, and
to all Members of the West Virginia Delegation to the Congress of
the United States with the request that this resolution be
officially entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the
Congress of the United States.
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