So What Happened To Legislation To Create Federal Office of Insurance Information?

Last May, I reported on H.R. 5840, the Insurance Information Act of 2008, to create the Office of Insurance Information, seen as a first giant step to creating federal charters for insurance companies.  See Broad Federal Insurance Regulations To Follow?  Whatever happened to the bill?

As reported by govtrack.us, a useful tool to follow the fortunes of legislation:

This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills go first to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills never make it out of committee. Keep in mind that sometimes the text of one bill is incorporated into another bill, and in those cases the original bill, as it would appear here, would seem to be abandoned. 

H.H. 5840 Track.  Indeed, Speaker Nancy Pelosi removed H.R. 5840 from the House calendar in September.

But in the wake of the AIG meltdown and ensuing congressional debate, Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA), the Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, vowed to keep pressing H.R. 5840 and issued this cry to action:

"Earlier this week, taxpayers were astonished to learn that the Federal Reserve would provide $85 billion in loans to American International Group, a global financial conglomerate with 71 U.S. insurance units.  These developments were only the latest example as to why the federal government needs to have access to in-house information on insurance, and why we need to adopt H.R. 5840 as quickly as possible.

 

"House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and I have already been in contact about the need to move H.R. 5840 forward as quickly as possible.  We are both committed to doing just that.  This bill is just one of many appropriate legislative responses to the ongoing turmoil in our financial markets.

Then yesterday The Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS) issued a press release urging efforts to bring H.R. 5840 to the floor of House of Representatives this week.  See RIMS Supports Advancement of Insurance Information Act.  So who know?