NAIC - Lobbyist

To: Commissioner William H.L. Woodyard, Arkansas
From: Commissioner Ed Birrane, Maryland
Date; June 15, 1980
Re: Federal Intervention in Insurance Regulation

  • A 'motion to reconsider later failed by about ten votes. It seems to me sad that we were unable to swing one vote or that the NAIC was not aware (evidently) of the activity here. This is precisely the situation which would be avoided with a Washington presence.
  • This amendment failed, however, due to poor draftsmanship, I am told by certain staff people in Washington. ·As it turned out, the House rejected the motion because they felt it would give State banking regulaton too much authority and the insurance regulators got lost in the shuffle. ·
    • Here again it would appear that an appropriate presence would have recognized the desire of the Congressmen to help us and we could have provided appropriate draft language in advance.  (p174-175)

1980-2, NAIC Proceedings

In recent years the financial industry has employed hundreds of former members of Congress, legislative staffers, senior regulators and agency staffers as lobbyists and advisers.

In 2009 and 2010, as noted above, (i) the financial industry hired more than 1,400 lobbyists who were former federal employees, including 73 former members of Congress and two former Comptrollers of the Currency, and (ii) the six largest U.S. banks employed more than 240 lobbyists who were former government insiders.607

  • Financial industry trade groups frequently appoint former politicians as their leaders.608

For example, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) recently named former Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) as its CEO.

  • In announcing Senator Nelson’s appointment, the president of NAIC declared, “We needed the gravitas, the phone calls returned, to go to Capitol Hill, to tell our story, defend our turf . . . . I think all the way up to and including President Obama would return Senator Nelson’s phone calls.”609

609 Zachary Tracer & Alex Nussbaum, Ex-Senator Nelson to Run Insurer Watchdog Group, BLOOMBERG, Jan. 22, 2013 (quoting NAIC president Jim Donelson, and noting that former Senator Nelson had previously served as Nebraska’s insurance commissioner and Governor).

2013 - LR - Turning a Blind Eye: Why Washington Keeps Giving Into Wall Street, Arthur E. Wilmarth, Jr - 166p