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SJM106......................................by COMMERCE AND HUMAN RESOURCES
INSURANCE - Stating findings of the Legislature and stating that the
Legislature is committed to maintaining the states as the sole regulators
of the business of insurance and that the Legislature will oppose any
proposed federal law that undermines this state authority.
02/11 Senate intro - 1st rdg - to printing
02/12 Rpt prt - to 10th Ord
02/13 10th Ord - ADOPTED - voice vote
Floor Sponsor - Goedde
Title apvd - to House
02/16 House intro - 1st rdg - to Bus
02/20 Rpt out - rec d/p - to 2nd rdg
02/23 2nd rdg - to 3rd rdg
02/25 3rd rdg - ADOPTED - voice vote
Floor Sponsor - Deal
Title apvd - to Senate
02/26 To enrol
02/27 Rpt enrol - Pres signed
03/01 Sp signed
03/02 To Secretary of State
]]]] LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO ]]]]
Fifty-seventh Legislature Second Regular Session - 2004
IN THE SENATE
SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 106
BY COMMERCE AND HUMAN RESOURCES COMMITTEE
1 A JOINT MEMORIAL
2 TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTA-
3 TIVES OF THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
4 TREASURY, TO THE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION REPRESENTING THE STATE OF IDAHO
5 IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES AND TO GOVERNOR KEMPTHORNE.
6 We, your Memorialists, the Senate and the House of Representatives of the
7 State of Idaho assembled in the Second Regular Session of the Fifty-seventh
8 Idaho Legislature, do hereby respectfully represent that:
9 WHEREAS, protecting consumers and ensuring the safety and soundness of
10 insurance companies operating in the United States have been the prime objec-
11 tives of state insurance regulation for over 150 years; and
12 WHEREAS, the states have the sole authority to regulate the business of
13 insurance as provided under the McCarran-Ferguson Act and as recently affirmed
14 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999; and
15 WHEREAS, state insurance regulation has been successful and effective, and
16 has continuously adapted to change in the marketplace including, but not lim-
17 ited to, the challenges of financial services modernization; and
18 WHEREAS, in responding to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Mod-
19 ernization Act, states already have successfully implemented reforms to meet
20 the requirements of the law including, among other things, agent licensing
21 reform and consumer financial privacy protections, and are working to develop
22 and implement further efficiencies; and
23 WHEREAS, governors, state legislators, and insurance commissioners have
24 acknowledged the need to streamline and simplify insurance regulation for the
25 21st century financial services marketplace and are enacting specific reforms
26 to address differences in state laws and rules that can present obstacles to
27 insurers, consumers' needs, and marketplace efficiencies; and
28 WHEREAS, some insurance companies and national associations representing
29 insurers and banks support federal legislation to either establish one federal
30 regulator of insurance or allow for dual federal and state insurance regula-
31 tion; and
32 WHEREAS, if enacted by Congress, these proposals will bifurcate insurance
33 regulation between the states and the federal government, undermining the
34 state system of consumer protections and financial surveillance, as well as
35 inevitably causing a loss of jobs, taxes, fees, and other vital and necessary
36 state revenues needed to effectively regulate the insurance market and provide
37 revenues to support residual market programs, such as high-risk pools.
38 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the Second Regular Ses-
39 sion of the Fifty-seventh Idaho Legislature, the Senate and the House of Rep-
40 resentatives concurring therein, that the Idaho Legislature is committed to
41 maintaining the states as the sole regulators of the business of insurance,
42 and continue to support state efforts to streamline, simplify and modernize
43 insurance regulation.
44 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Idaho Legislature will oppose any proposed
2
1 federal law that undermines this state authority, including allowing insurers
2 the ability to obtain federal charters, or ceding any authority to federal
3 agencies to regulate financial institutions involved in the business of insur-
4 ance.
5 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Senate be, and she is
6 hereby authorized and directed to forward a copy of this Memorial to the Pres-
7 ident of the United States, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the
8 House of Representatives of Congress, the Secretary of the Treasury, the con-
9 gressional delegation representing the State of Idaho in the Congress of the
10 United States, and Governor Dirk Kempthorne as chairman of the National Gover-
11 nors Association.