Congressional Record

  • The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress beginning with the Forty-Third Congress in 1873, published daily when Congress is in session.
  • Predecessors - Annals of Congress, Register of Debates, and Congressional Globe.
  • 1945 0125 - Congressional Record - congress.gov/79/crecb/1945/01/25/GPO-CRECB-1945-pt1-15.pdf
    • (p17) - REGULATION OF THE BUSINESS OF INSURANCE
      • The LEGISLATIVE CLERK. A bill (S. 340) in its opinion in the case of United States to express the intent of the Congress with reference to the regulation of the business of insurance.

    • Kenneth McKELLAR (D-TN) - As I understand the bill its purpose and effect will be to establish the law as it was supposed to be prior to the rendering of the recent opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States. Is that correct?

    • Homer FERGUSON (R-MI) - No.

      • ...

      • In other words, the bill would establish a moratorium on the application of the provisions of those acts until the date set forth in the bill.

    • Abe MURDOCK (D-UT) - Let us look at that phase of the subject for a minute. We new leave section 2 of the bill and drop down to section 4.
      • Paragraph (a) of section 4 provides for a moratorium, or a suspension of the Sherman and Clayton Acts insofar as they relate to insurance, for a period, respectively, until June 1, 1947, so far as the Sherman Act is concerned, and until January 1, 1948, so far as the Clayton Act is concerned.
    • Homer FERGUSON (R-MI) - The Senator is correct
  • 1906 0419 - Congressional Record - govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1906-pt6-v40/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1906-pt6-v40-9-2.pdf
    • (p576 / 5779) - The presidents of three of the large life insurance companies, by withdrawing $50,000,000 of their money from the New York banks and putting it in safe-deposit vaults, could at once cause a panic such as this country never had in its history, and no law to-day could stop them from doing this.
      • Homer, in English history, once said that no one man possessed power over another without abusing it. 
    • (p58 / 5780) - He is also forced to take out a line of life insurance, thus giving the McCurdys and others an opportunity to rob him, to protect his wife and family, as all of his property, in the event of his death, will go to his creditors, and ninety-five time out of a hundred will not pay the indebtedness.
  • 1980 0207 - Congressional Record - Senators Howard Cannon (D-NV),  Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH),  John Durkin (D-NH), re: FTC, McCarran-Ferguson Act - p2382 - congress.gov/bound-congressional-record/1980/02/07/senate-section
    • (p2367-2368) - Senator Howard Cannon (D-NV) -  Mr. President, at the time of the markup in the Senate Commerce Committee on the FTC bill, I held the firm belief, and still do, that the Senate Commerce Committee was the sole committee in the Senate with broad jurisdiction over the economic regulation of the insurance industry. I would certainly concede that the Judiciary Committee has legislative jurisdiction solely with respect to the antitrust immunity granted to the insurance industry.
      • Therefore, under S. 1991, I would envision that only the Commerce Committee would have the authority to direct
        the Federal Trade Commission to undertake studies pertaining to regulation of this industry, and then only within those circumstances provided for in the McCarren-Ferguson Act.
      • We had a long discussion on this matter during the markup, the distinguished Senator from Missouri, myself, and others.
        • What we are attempting to do in section 5 of the bill, and what we intend to do if we can get the votes, is to be sure that the FTC keeps its nose out of the investigation of the insurance industry, as was envisioned when the McCarren-Ferguson Act was passed.
        • That is exactly what we intend
    • (p2374) - Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH):

  • (p2376) -  Senator John Durkin (D-NH), Former Insurance Commissioner, New Hampshire:
    • I think we all would like more cost disclosure, but how do you make everybody in America a life insurance actuary, with two pages of descriptive material?
  • (p2376) - Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH):
    • But, as a matter of fact, the GAO just recently came out with a report in which they said very clearly that the States are not doing an effective job of regulation and stated they have neither the time nor the money nor the expertise.
      • 1979 - GAO - Issues and Needed Improvements in State Regulation of the Insurance Business, Government Accountability Office - 298p
    • That does not mean to suggest either by implication or otherwise that I think the Federal Government regulation, but I think that information provided to a committee of Congress which has jurisdiction is entirely appropriate and I think that is apparently where we are as the Cannon statement seemed to indicate.

  • While the NAIC has taken no position for or against class action, intense regulation on behalf of the consumer lessens the need for class action.
    • Furthermore, the state provides an effective local, readily accessible complaint mechanism available to the consumer which serves as an alternative to class action.

--- John Durkin (D-NH)

  • John DURKIN (D-NH). Mr. President, this issue of whether the Federal Trade Commission should be involved in the regulation of insurance has been around for some time.
    • I ask unanimous consent, Mr. President, that my testimony in April 1971 before the Consumer Subcommittee of the Commerce Committee be printed in the RECORD at this point.
    • There being no objection, the statement was ordered to be printed in the RECoRD, as follows: STATEMENT OF JOHN DURKIN, COMMISSIONER, STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, INSURANCE DEPARTMENT, CONCORD, N.H.; ACCOMPANIED BY JON S. HANSON, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INSURANCE COMMISSIONERS

1980 0207 - Congressional Record - Senator Howard Cannon - (D-NV),  Senator Howard Metzenbaum - (D-OH), Senator John Durkin - (D-NH), re: FTC, McCarran-Ferguson Act - p2368

  • Equitable Life Insurance was accused of misleading and cheating customers.
  • This was a situation of the so-called vanishing premium cases in the 1980s.
    • They sold policies when interest rates were high.
    • They told customers as soon as the interest rates went down their premiums would be lower.
      • That was not true.
    • Class action lawsuits were filed in Pennsylvania and Arizona state courts, and Equitable settled the suits for $20 million helping over 130,000 people.
    • However, because the insurance company was based in another state, under this legislation, the case would have been removed to federal court and these people harmed between 1984–1996 would still be waiting for justice.  (S1150)

--  Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) 

2005 0209 - Congressional Record - [PDF-70p]

  • govinfo.gov///GPO-CRECB-1971-pt10-4-2.pdf
    • CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, MARKET IMPERFECTIONS, AND PUBLIC POLICY. By Richard H. Holton
      • The gross imperfections in some markets which can result from the low quality of consumer demand is suggested in its extreme form by the life insurance industry.
        • Part of the explanation no doubt is that purchasers of Life Insurance look on the annual premium, rather than the net cost, as the price of the policy. (13177)
        • Although the life insurance market is not as imperfect as the dispersion of net cost figures suggest, one can conjecture that the intelligent purchasing of life insurance is so complex that consumers do not engage
          in extensive search because of an inability to assay the alternatives very completely or satisfactorily.
  • It has an impact on other insurance companies, too.
    • A few years ago, I found I had been made a plaintiff in a case brought in Santa Fe, New Mexico, against Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.
  • What was it alleged Massachusetts Mutual had done wrong?
    • Well, when you get your premium, your bill, from Massachusetts Mutual, you can pay it on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.
      • If you pay it on a monthly basis, you pay a little more than on a quarterly basis, and that is a little bit more than on an annual basis.
      • Why? Because if you pay on an annual basis, it costs them a lot less money to send out one bill than to send out 12 bills a year, and they have the opportunity to get that money sooner invested.
      • So it is a little less expensive to them, and they pass that savings along to the consumer.
    • The plaintiff in this case and their attorney said they should have to spell out exactly what the difference in savings is rather than simply look at the bill and see that these payments are 12 times what there is and that that is a little more.
      • They said they had to make a disclosure under laws that are not even supposed to apply to insurance companies.
    • Well, they went ahead and settled that case.
      • Why? I asked them.
        • They said because they did not want to get in the same situation that State Farm Insurance Company found itself in with a $1.3 million lawsuit.
    • What was the agreed-upon settlement they sent to the judge in that Santa Fe, New Mexico, court?
      • Well, it provided for $13 million in attorneys’ fees, $5 million up front, $5 million over a period of time, and a nice $3 million universal life insurance policy for the plaintiffs’ attorneys. Is that not nice?
    • Now, what did the plaintiffs get?
      • The plaintiffs, all the plaintiffs got a promise that Massachusetts Mutual would not do this again.
    • Now there is a new settlement proposed because that one actually was withdrawn when they realized how embarrassing it was for the plaintiffs’ attorneys to get $13 million in fees and the plaintiffs would simply get a promise for nothing.
  • Now they have changed it so the plaintiffs might get as much as $50 off on their policy.
  • The plaintiffs’ attorneys would still get the massive 8-digit settlement amount in the multimillions of dollars.  (p55 / H687)

--  Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)

2002 0216 - Congressional Record - 255p

  • 2009 0707 - Congressional Record - Madoff Victims are Victimized Again, This Time By Our Own Government - Ms. Ros-Lehtinen (R-FLA) - 130p
    • (p20) - The victims’ plight is compelling.
    • Think about this, Madam Speaker, irrespective of numerous warnings the SEC received dating back 17 years, all of our Federal agencies stood by and did nothing while thousands of investors deposited their money, usually their life savings, with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.