Republicans in the House of Representatives, led by Virginia Rep. Ben Cline, will introduce legislation Thursday that would eliminate the Federal Insurance Office (FIO), a regulatory organ created during the Obama administration.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act created the FIO to regulate all aspects of the private insurance market. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced in October that the office would begin gathering more data from business and homeowners’ insurance plans to determine how “climate-related risks” might impact them. The regulation came in response to an executive order from President Joe Biden, which orders the federal government to provide “disclosure of climate-related financial risk” with the goal of creating “a net-zero emissions economy by no later than 2050.”
The new regulation is the chief reason FIO should be eliminated, Cline told the Daily Caller, although the office also fulfills functions already performed by the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, and U.S. Trade Representative.
“The Federal Insurance Office’s burdensome regulations and oppressive federal oversight of each state’s insurance market are glaring examples of the federal government’s excessive overreach. Worse, the Biden Administration has weaponized this bureaucracy to implement its woke Green New Deal agenda in the regulation of insurance. State laws protecting the availability of insurance for millions of Americans should be defended, not used as a political football. Defunding the ever-expanding agency is a good step towards draining the D.C. swamp and returning oversight back to the states,” he said in a statement.
Read the bill here:
Text – FIO Elimination by Michael Ginsberg on Scribd
Original cosponsors include Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, Wisconsin Rep. Glenn Grothman, West Virginia Rep. Alex Mooney, South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, and Texas Rep. Randy Weber.
Cabinet-level departments and federal agencies have developed a raft of rules and regulations to implement Biden’s executive order. Agencies regulating the financial sector have been particularly aggressive, with the Department of Labor and Securities and Exchange Commission developing rules that promote principles associated with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. (RELATED: ‘It’s A Scam’: House Republicans Prepare Next Salvo In War On Woke Capital)
Congressional Republicans have made extensive use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to push back on executive branch regulations. Under the law, Congress can pass laws with a simple majority to overturn executive regulations, although the resolutions are still subject to a presidential veto.
The House and Senate have passed CRA resolutions taking aim at rules that allow investment managers to consider ESG factors when investing retirement fund savings, and allow the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate more of the nation’s waterways, although Biden vetoed them. A resolution targeting Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan is pending.