The National Conference of Insurance Legislators has officially come out against proposed federal insurance regulatory reform legislation.[@@]
NCOIL President Steve Geller, a Democratic member of the Florida Senate, sent a letter opposing the State Modernization and Regulatory Transparency Act proposal to key U.S. House members in September.
The NCOIL executive committee formally endorsed Geller's initiative here Saturday at NCOIL's annual meeting.
The move seems to put NCOIL at odds with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., which continues to work with the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on drafting legislation based on the SMART Act proposal.
For the first half of the year, NCOIL and the NAIC worked closely together on projects such as market conduct model legislation, to impress federal lawmakers with their seriousness about creating uniform regulation.
Geller said the initial efforts at cooperation were aimed at getting a "place at the so-called mythical table."
"But at some point you have to draw a line in the sand," he said. "Because as legislators we all know that if we continue to take part in the process then, in the end, we will have to support its outcome."
The initial draft of the SMART Act that came out late last summer infuriated state lawmakers, who felt that it stripped them of their powers and gave those powers to federal bureaucrats, state bureaucrats and the NAIC.
