Contact:	Caroline Fuller (202) 543-1440 c.fuller@att.net
For Release:	Immediate News Bulletin 06.20 July 21, 2006

Senate Banking Committee Debates Insurance Reform Legislation

Washington, D.C., July 21, 2006 — The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing this week to consider perspectives on insurance regulation. This is the second hearing in the past week that the Senate committee has held on insurance regulation reform. The previous hearing was held July 11.

Present to testify at the hearing were:

• The Honorable Randal K. Quarles, undersecretary for Domestic Finance, Department of the Treasury
• Dr. Scott Harrington, Alan B. Miller professor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
• Dr. Robert W. Klein, director of the Center for Risk Management and Insurance Research, Georgia State University

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs has been debating insurance regulation legislation, Senate Bill 2509, introduced by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and John Sununu, R-N.H. If passed, S. 2509 will allow businesses to choose whether to be regulated by a state or federal government agency.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., Senate Banking Committee chairman, has not indicated whether he will move insurance reform legislation this legislative session.

Quarles testified for the administration but did not endorse any specific legislation. Quarles did provide encouragement to federal reform efforts. In his statement, he said, "Our current system of insurance regulation requires modernization to meet the challenges facing the insurance industry, and financial services generally, in the 21st century. Our existing system of regulation has the potential to lead to inefficient economic outcomes (raising the cost and reducing the supply of many insurance products), deters international participation in our domestic markets (again raising costs and limiting consumer choice), creates obstacles to our own insurance firms' international expansion, and limits the ability of any one regulator to have an overview of risk in the insurance sector and its contribution to risk in the financial system more broadly."

Bob Redding, the Automotive Service Association's Washington, D.C., representative, said, "Congress continues to hear from constituencies who believe the current system for regulating the insurance industry is not working. Although there are several bills being considered by this Congress, substantive reform has a long way to go and with the brevity of time may be delayed until the next Congress."

To view more on the hearing and this legislation, please go to www.TakingTheHill.com.

The Automotive Service Association is the largest not-for-profit trade association of its kind dedicated to and governed by independent automotive service and repair professionals. ASA serves an international membership base that includes numerous affiliate, state and chapter groups from both the mechanical and collision repair segments of the automotive service industry. ASA's headquarters is in Bedford, Texas.

ASA advances professionalism and excellence in the automotive repair industry through education, representation and member services. For additional information about ASA, including past news releases, go to www.asashop.org, or visit ASA's legislative Web site at www.TakingTheHill.com.

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