Bill Could Limit Treasury Unit’s Ability to Probe Insurers

H.R. 5535

H.R. 5535 would restrict federal agencies’ ability to ask insurers for information without eliminating all data calls.

The bill would require federal agencies that want data to start by seeing if they could get the information from public sources, state insurance regulators or other federal agencies, such as the IRS, that have an existing process for getting data from insurers.

Once the federal agencies obtained the data, they would have to abide by any confidentiality rules governing the entities that originally collected it.

If the Federal Insurance Office or federal bank regulators needed insurance company data that was not available from data vendors, state regulators or other federal agencies, they would have to put the requests for information through a formal Paperwork Reduction Act review process.

The Paperwork Reduction Act requires many federal agencies to post draft information collection forms and give affected entities a chance to comment on the forms.

H.R. 5535 was introduced by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis. It has five Republican co-sponsors and no Democratic co-sponsors.

The bill is under the jurisdiction of the House Financial Services Committee and the House Agriculture Committee.

The US Capitol building in Washington. (Image: Bloomberg)