Introduced:
1. H.R. 3354, the Primary Regulators of Insurance Vote Act
– Co-Led by former California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi (D-CA)- Would abolish the nonvoting seat for state insurance commissioners at the Financial Stability Oversight Council and replace it with a voting seat.- This is meant to give insurance regulators a greater say on national financial stability issues, and to weaken the role of the Federal Insurance Office which has operated as a quasi-federal regulatory entity without Congressional authorization to do so.
2. H.R. 3355, the Ensuring U.S. Authority over U.S. Bank Regulation Act.- This bill would require U.S. bank regulators to disclose the details of their activities when engaging with foreign NGOs, and to communicate with Congress when implementing recommendations that enact the recommendations of those foreign NGOs.- Last Congress this bill was a part of Rep. Loudermilk’s “American FIRST” Act, which aimed to put American interests first in Prudential Financial regulation.3. H.R. 3402, a bill providing Duties of Certain Investment Advisors and Large Asset Managers- This bill is meant to be a component of a larger bill, which is why it has no short title.- This bill would require the largest asset managers, think Blackrock, State Street, or Vanguard, to disclose the percentage of shareholder proxy votes they cast in-line with the recommendations of large proxy advisory firms.- The largest of these asset managers would be required to provide further justification for how they vote the shares that they manage for investors to ensure that these votes aren’t against the financial interest of their shareholders.- This bill is a response to concerns that the proxy advisory duopoly of ISS and Glass-Lewis exercise undue influence over company management decisions by way of their recommendations to large asset managers on proxy votes. Over the last few years, the proxy firms have increasingly made recommendations related to non-material shareholder matters, such as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policy.4. H.R. 3380, the TAILOR Act- This bill would require federal financial regulators to tailor the scope of their regulations to fit the risk profiles of individual business models.- Currently, most regulatory tailoring is done by asset value. This has the unintended consequence of deterring banks from passing key milestones due to the new regulatory requirements that would kick in on the other side, slowing healthy growth.- Risk-based tailoring is much more customized approach, allowing banks to take healthy risks and truly innovate. Because the Financial Services industry can’t ‘innovate’ in the same way that a factory might innovate by inventing a new and faster machine or process, much of the innovation depends on adopting new business models.
Co-Sponsored:
H.R. 3437, the Insurance Data Protection Act.- This bill would remove the Federal Insurance Office’s subpoena authority.- FIO is a research arm of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. It is intended to advise the council on matters related to the insurance industry. It was never meant to be able to subpoena private businesses.- The National Association of Insurance Commissioners collects a great deal of data from the companies its member regulators supervise, and insurance has traditionally been regulated at the state level, yet in recent years FIO has proposed pulling data directly from the insurance companies using its subpoena authority.
Letters Signed-on:
1.
1. A letter to new FHFA Director Bill Pulte, urging him to permanently end the agency’s plan to allow bi-merge credit reporting- To achieve minor cost savings for the consumer, the FHFA under the Biden Administration proposed requiring only two reports when a consumer applies for a federally backed mortgage.- While this would save consumers some, it would also increase risk to the GSEs (Fannie and Freddie) if significant credit data found on only one report is missed and might result in people qualifying for more credit than they can handle. The risk to the GSE balance sheets far outweighs the reduced costs.
2. A letter pertaining to Iranian nuclear disarmament, by Rep. August Pfluger . This letter urges President Trump to only consider a deal with Iran in which the regime is required to undergo nuclear disarmament.
Click here to see the full letter
