1992 - AP - Aggressive Oversight: The Subcommittee of Oversight and Investigations of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, by Diane D. Burton - 140p
ABSTRACT
This thesis examines some of the factors which have
made the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Energy and Commerce Committee an outlier in terms of congressional oversight during the past decade. Interviews with congressional staff and examination of hearing reports focus on eight issues which reached the hearing stage during the 101st Congress (1989-91). Five dependent variables were reviewed:
origin of each investigation
Chairman Dingell's role
subcommittee member participation
partisanship and minority involvement
outcome of the investigation
The focus of the paper is the incongruence between
staff perceptions of the subcommittee and the picture which emerges from an examination of available data.
1988 0914 and 0915 - GOV (House) - Insurance Company Failures, John Dingell (D-MI) --- [BonkNote]
House - Committee on Energy and Commerce - Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
1990 0225 - Chicago Tribune - Crisis Warning Stirs Insurance Industry Ire, By Chicago Tribune - [link[
The insurance industry could be headed for a financial crisis along the lines of the savings and loan debacle unless there is a substantial upgrade in regulation, warns a congressional report issued Sunday.
[Bonk: Report:
State regulators and insurance industry officials rejected the study`s warnings of catastrophe, but said the attack likely will spur state reforms as a way to avert any attempt at federal insurance regulation.
1991 0324 - Chicago Tribune - A Quest for a National Policy to Cover Insurance Industry Risk, By Laurie Cohen - [link]
1992 - ABA - Public Regulation of Insurance Law: Recent Developments, by Cynthia J. Borrelli, Tort & Insurance Law Journal, Vol. 27, No. 2, Annual Survey of Tort and Insurance Law (WINTER 1992), pp. 418-436 (19 pages), Published By: American Bar Association - <JSTOR>
1996 0430 - Los Angeles Times - Pressure Mounts to Curb Insurance Industry Guard, By Scot J. Paltrow - [link]
Many argue that the NAIC has overstepped its bounds by looking into insurance company marketing practices and dictating standards for how much capital companies must have.
Then came the 1994 elections. The Republican takeover in Congress stripped Dingell of his committee chairmanship. Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), the leading force in the Senate for tougher requirements on the insurance industry, retired.
At the same time, many newly elected Republican governors appointed Republicans to replace Democratic state insurance commissioners. And in some of the 12 states that elect their commissioners, voters installed Republicans to replace Democrats. In California, for example, Republican Chuck Quackenbush succeeded Democrat John Garamendi, who stepped down.
In all, 28 of the NAIC’s 55 members--from the 50 states, the District of Columbia and four territories--were new. Many came directly from the industry they now regulate and supported industry demands that the NAIC’s powers be curtailed
1998 0205 - WSJ - How Insurance Firms Beat Back An Effort for Stricter Controls, By Scot J. Paltrow - [link]
On May 22, 1996, the nation's leading insurance regulators traveled to Nick's Fish Market near Chicago to dine privately with executives of two major insurance companies.
On the menu was an urgent question: Just how forceful would these regulators be in policing the $750 billion industry? The answer, which the participants agreed to before dessert had arrived, would quietly but dramatically alter the course of insurance regulation in America.
Insurers say they won significant concessions.
At a recent NAIC budget hearing in Kansas City, S. Roy Woodall Jr. of the American Council of Life Insurers announced: "Our companies are very well-pleased."
Says J. Robert Hunter, former Texas commissioner and now head of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America: "The boycotters won."
David B. Simmons, the previous NAIC staff director who left in 1996 while under attack from insurers, complains that the NAIC is pulling back from helping states improve regulation of sales practices at a time when illicit practices have become a major issue in the wake of scandals involving Prudential Insurance Co. of America and other life insurers.
Mr. Simmons says individual insurance departments did nothing to halt the fraud that was proliferating in the 1980s and early '90s, despite numerous warning signs.
Missouri Insurance Commissioner Jay Angoff takes a different position. He says state regulation has survived because the great majority of insurers believe they wield significant influence over their home-state regulators.
Adds Mr. Angoff, "They'd rather be regulated by 50 monkeys than one big gorilla."
2005 0211 - CRS - Insurance Regulation: History, Background, and Recent Congressional Oversight (RL31982), Congressional Research Service - 32p
(p2 - Summary) - This report provides the historical background for examining the arguments in this debate. It shows that state regulation of insurance is largely a historical artifact,...
2009 - AP - On the Financial Regulation of Insurance Companies, by Viral V. Acharya, John Biggs, Matthew Richardson and Stephen Ryan, NYU Stern School of Business - 47p