The Biden administration’s climate agenda is under scrutiny by Republican lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee panel, who are probing the efforts of the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) to impose it on insurance companies.
Led by Chairman Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, every Republican member of the House and Insurance Subcommittee expressed concern about the FIO’s recent actions to collect climate-related data from property and casualty insurers.
The lawmakers argued that such actions were limited to state insurance regulators, not the FIO, which is a subagency of the Treasury Department.
They noted that while the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 authorizes the agency to collect certain data, it limits such actions to traditional regulation and mandates consultation with state insurance regulators.
Davidson said that climate alarmists and activists were abusing the FIO by overstepping state regulators to collect climate data.
He argued that the FIO’s lack of good faith to coordinate with state insurance regulators sets a dangerous precedent that could ultimately undermine Congress’s intent under the Dodd-Frank consumer protection law.
The FIO’s recent actions deviate from the letter and spirit of Dodd-Frank, he and his fellow Republican subcommittee members wrote in their letter to FIO Director Steven Seitz.
They emphasized that requiring the FIO to coordinate with state insurance regulators was critical to ensuring that the agency could conduct relevant activities to achieve its goals while also maintaining the proven state-based regulation of insurance.
Source https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-probe-biden-admins-climate-overreach-consumer-insurance