Insurance Capital Standards Clarification Act of 2014

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5461, the Insurance Capital Standards Clarification Act of 2014, sponsored by our colleague Mr. BARR of Kentucky.

This bill is a common sense fix to several problems that have arisen from the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act--problems that are detrimental to our economy and needlessly limit opportunities for our fellow Americans to live better lives.

Mr. Speaker, we all know that today 19 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. No matter how hard many of them try to find work, the jobs just aren't there in this economy because the President's economic policies have failed them. Clearly, job number one for Congress continues to be job creation and economic growth. That's why the House has passed more than 40 bills aimed at creating jobs, many of them I am proud to say originated in the Financial Services Committee, which I chair. These are common sense ideas, many of them bipartisan, aimed at supporting wage earners, strengthening small businesses, and removing Washington's onerous red tape road blocks that stifle growth and kill opportunity.

Yet Senate leaders have failed to bring a single one of these jobs bills up for a vote, even though they are supported by both Republicans and Democrats. Before time during this Congress runs out, I once again call on the Senate's leaders to get to work. They can start with H.R. 5461. Both Democrats and Republicans strongly support this bill. Even the Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee--who has announced she will be voting against H.R. 5461--acknowledges in a ``Dear Colleague'' letter circulated to all our offices that the bill offers ``bipartisan, sensible regulatory relief;'' yet still for some reason she will vote against it.

Let me briefly describe this bill and why it's needed to help the American people.

H.R. 5461 provides the Federal Reserve with the flexibility to set capital standards for insurance companies under its supervision. Because of the onerous Dodd-Frank Act, Washington regulators are imposing one-size-fits-all capital standards designed for banks onto firms that are not banks but insurance companies. Research has shown that applying capital standards that are meant for banks to insurance companies could massively increase costs between $5 billion to $8 billion. This increase in costs will result in higher premiums and reduced benefits for policyholders. Many policies could simply become unavailable to consumers as companies stop offering certain insurance products. H.R. 5461 ensures proper capital standards are applied to insurers under the purview of the Fed and that these institutions can continue serving American consumers.

In addition, H.R. 5461 incorporates three other bills that originated in the Financial Services Committee and previously received overwhelming bipartisan support: H.R. 634, the Business Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act; H.R. 3211, the Mortgage Choice Act; and H.R. 4167, the Restoring Proven Financing for American Employees Act.

In this time when there seems to be so little that Republicans and Democrats in Washington agree on, I think it's important to note just how much bipartisan support all of these bills earned.

H.R. 634 passed the Financial Services Committee 59-0 on May 7, 2013 and then passed the House 411-22 on June 12, 2013. This bipartisan bill exempts manufacturers, ranchers and small companies that buy and sell derivatives to hedge against business risk from burdensome margin and capital requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act.

H.R. 3211 passed the committee unanimously by voice vote on May 22 of this year and then passed the House by voice vote on June 9. This bipartisan bill increases access to mortgage credit for low- and middle-income Americans by modifying the definition of ``points and fees'' for the purposes of determining whether a mortgage is eligible for treatment as a ``Qualified Mortgage'' under Dodd-Frank.

H.R. 4167 passed the committee 53-3 on March 14, 2014 and then passed the House by voice vote on April 29. This bipartisan bill addresses unintended, harmful economic consequences for collateralized loan obligations caused by the final version of Dodd-Frank's Volcker rule.

Mr. Speaker, not a single one of these ideas is divisive. All are bipartisan, and each one offers common sense regulatory relief to our struggling economy. Anyone who tries to claim otherwise is simply misstating the facts because the record is absolutely clear.

I urge House passage of this bipartisan bill, including its provisions that were previously and overwhelmingly approved by the House with support from Republicans and Democrats, and I call on Senate leaders to put partisanship aside and to stop their dilatory tactics. The House once again is offering bipartisan solutions to help our economy and create jobs. There's no excuse why the Senate should not do the same.

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