The Governmental Affairs Committee is charged with ensuring AAMGA members are kept informed on the governmental and regulatory issues, developments and other matters having an impact on their operations.

Committee members regularly meet with state and federal elected and appointed officials across the country. The AAMGA’s influence in Congress and with state regulators has enabled members of the Association to advance needed insurance reforms and to then lobby their own elected representatives and regulators on matters of importance to the wholesale insurance industry. It has also resulted in the AAMGA being afforded the opportunity of testifying and providing specific data and information on our industry before US Senate and House of Representatives Committees in Washington, DC. The AAMGA is a reliable and trusted source.

The Governmental Affairs Committee also liaises regularly with the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom, in order to discuss and advise how regulatory initiatives there will impact the transaction of business in North America.

Members attend meetings of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the National Association of Professional and Surplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO), the National Council of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL), Surplus Lines Law Group, and other insurance industry conferences.

2010 - 2011 Committee Goals

1. Support and work for passage of legislation in influential states for an acceptable tax allocation process.
2. Monitor existing regulatory and legislative issues and review new initiatives on both state and federal levels.
3. Work with the Executive Director to ensure federal, state and industry hearings and conferences affecting the membership are attended.
4. Increase membership awareness of current and new federal and state regulatory information through e-mail messages, newsletters and the Association website.
5. Inform and educate legislative and regulatory staffs/departments about AAMGA, the Surplus Lines Industry and the role of the wholesale MGA
6. Continue to work with other industry associations to build coalitions.

Silvers and Gold vs. Lexington Insurance Company

Appellate Brief of the Plaintiffs (PDF)

Lexington Insurance Company Appellate Brief (PDF)

AAMGA Amicus Brief (doc)

Surplus Lines Law Group Fall 2009 Meeting Materials (35.3MB PDF)

State Tort Law Profiles

Florida 2009 Legislative Wrap-Up

The 2009 Session of the Florida Legislature was an important one to wholesale insurance professionals. Click here to listen to a podcast wrap up of the Session with AAMGA members Fred Karlinsky and Katie Webb of the Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld and Karlinsky law firm.

Congressional Hearings on Insurance Regulation

Click here for a brief summary of the insurance regulatory hearings that were held before the Senate’s Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and the House Financial Services Committee, on March 17, 2009.

Click here to access the Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge Excess and Surplus Lines Law Manual.

Click here to download a copy of the Regulatory and Legislative Positions of the AAMGA brochure.

AAMGA Governmental & Regulatory Podcasts

Each week the AAMGA Governmental Affairs Committee provides its members with podcasts of important news and information impacting our membership. In an exclusive relationship with the Patton & Boggs law firm in Washington, DC, and its partner Kevin O’Neill, Esquire, the podcasts provide weekly updates to keep AAMGA members on top of all the developments and trends.

Please click on the highlighted titles below to access the podcast in which
you are interested.

White House Report (Running Time 13:29)

• British Prime Minister David Cameron is in Washington for his first visit as the new head of government but the rift between England and the United States will take more than a White House photo op to heal.
• The financial services reform bill signing Wednesday is a chance for the President to remind voters he is pushing for them on pocketbook issues.
• With the oil well capped for the moment in the Gulf, the President’s moratorium on deepwater drilling, the clean-up and the payment system being set up by the Special Master to aid people impacted by the spill all become more important.
• New leadership announced at OMB.
• An inconvenient truth uttered last week has exposed some of the growing distance between the White House and the Democratic House Members fighting to hold their majority this fall.
• With the financial services bill being signed into law this coming week, one of the plum jobs created is the Director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
• Polls last week showed President Obama tied with some of his top opponents on a prospective 2012 election ballot. The FEC’s latest financial reports indicate many of those potential opponents are developing the fundraising and manpower networks needed to start a Presidential nomination race that likely begins in November. We cover the contenders.
• Special Envoy George Mitchell is in the Middle East and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Korea this week.
• The President shoots hoops with the Mercury rising and the First Lady throws out the first pitch this week.

Congress Report (Running Time 10:50)

• With just three weeks left in the session before a big break in the calendar for summer vacation, the Senate’s list of to-do items is not getting much shorter but the odds of passing all of it are getting longer.
• What does the appointment of Carte Goodwin to fill the vacancy created by the death of Robert Byrd mean for the Senate this summer?
• The Senate’s energy bill and the DISCLOSE campaign finance reform bill face long odds in the Senate this summer.
• The Judiciary Committee votes on the Elena Kagan nomination this week.
• The Appropriations Committees begin a critical markup period with House floor and Senate full committee action looming this month.

Healthcare Report (Running Time 4:17)

• We cover the recess appointment of Donald Berwick as CMS Administrator.
• OMB gets a well-respected new director to succeed Peter Orszag.
• The small business bill pending in the Senate impacts the generic drug industry.

Click here to participate on the AAMGA’s Governmental Affairs Committee

Click here to access the AAMGA Caucus Room with state and federal legislative and regulatory news and information

State Insurance Departments

Scroll over and click on the individual state names below for the websites of the state insurance departments:

Members of the Committee in 2010-2011 are: