Scott introduces bipartisan safeguard to prevent CFPB overreach

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday afternoon, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) introduced targeted, bipartisan legislation that would ensure the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, does not regulate the business of insurance. The Business of Insurance Regulatory Reform Act of 2018 aims to better codify the CFPB’s current boundaries in the insurance business and seeks to keep insurance regulation on the state level where it belongs. Additional co-sponsors include Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Mike Rounds (R-SD).

“As someone who sold insurance for 23 years, I answered to our state’s insurance director in Columbia, not bureaucrats in Washington,” said Scott. “Congress never intended for the CFPB to be an insurance regulator, and this bipartisan, commonsense bill ensures that our 150-year old system of state-based insurance regulation stays in place while keeping costs down for policyholders of all kinds.”

This legislation has already received considerable support from various groups, including the Carolinas Credit Union League, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America (The Big “I”), National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) and the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU).

Companion legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI). The bill was advanced by the House Financial Services Committee on a bipartisan vote of 37-18 on January 18, 2018.