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Memos From Madison
MEMOS FROM MADISON
PETE HANSON, CAE, CISR Executive Director, PIA of Wisconsin
CYBERSECURITY CERTIFICATION REQUIRED BY MARCH 1, 2023
PIA VICTORY FOR CROP INSURANCE AGENTS
Starting in January, insurance industry businesses will be able to complete a required cybersecurity certification form online, at https://public.oci.wi.gov/ finform/public/cybersecurity. Most PIAW member agencies will merely certify that they are exempt businesses, and the filing will be very simple. PIAW fought hard in the state Capitol for small businesses to be exempted from the requirement to create an information security program (ISP). A business is exempt if it has: A. Fewer than 50 employees, or B. Less than $5 million in annual revenue, or C. Less than $10 million in assets The law that requires this cybersecurity certification is 2021 Wisconsin Act 73. You have likely seen coverage of this topic in this publication and in the PIAW Newsline, over the past three years. During that time, PIAW members met with state lawmakers, engaged in email campaigns and testified at public hearings in support of the bill with amendments to exempt small agencies. With certain exceptions, businesses large enough to exceed all three thresholds (listed above) will have to upload their ISP during this certification process. The exceptions are businesses whose operations are already regulated by the information security regulations contained in federal regulations known as HIPPA, GrammLeach-Bliley, FINRA or Farm Credit Administration guidelines. In other words, health insurance companies, securities brokers, banks and mortgage companies are exempted from reporting to OCI because they already report this information to federal regulators. If you didn’t receive emails and other communications from us on this topic, please take a few minutes to “white list” or “safe list” piaw.org in your spam filter and your email platform. We will send another notification in February, just to be certain that nobody misses this required filing. If you have any questions about this law or how to get started on developing an ISP, please feel free to reach out to me at phanson@ piaw.org or (608) 274-8188.
In a victory for crop insurance agents, PIA-supported crop insurance provisions have passed Congress as part of the sweeping omnibus spending package that will fund the government through September of 2023. Crop insurance agents’ compensation was effectively frozen at 2015 levels, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture ended the annual inflation adjustment in 2016. PIA’s lobbying team in Washington, D.C. and PIA crop insurance agents from across the nation advocated aggressively in favor of reinstating the inflation adjustment and fixing an effective annual pay cut for crop agents. The 2023 Omnibus Bill included a $25 million appropriation to provide immediate relief to the specialty crop market and an authorization for the Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency to reinstate the inflation adjustments. These provisions were included in the package just weeks after PIA-member crop agents flew to Washington, D.C. to discuss the matter with key lawmakers. PIA will follow this issue carefully in 2023 to ensure these provisions are implemented.
