From the President

What is PIA Advocacy Day?

Julie Ulset, CPIA - President, PIA of Wisconsin

Each year, PIA agents from around the country come together in Washington, D.C. to attend PIA’s annual congressional fly-in event. PIA Advocacy Day (previously the Federal Legislative Summit), is normally held in the first week of April. This year, it was a very different event, due to the ongoing pandemic. It was held on May 12 and it was totally virtual. Meetings with Congressional offices were done by videoconference or teleconference.

PIA Advocacy Day is our opportunity to present our concerns to members of Congress and their policy staff, on issues of importance to the independent agent community. There are many issues of importance that we discuss with lawmakers, on both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. Sometimes, members of Congress or their staff are already familiar with issues we are telling them about, and sometimes we are explaining new concepts and why they affect independent agents.

Here are few of the issues we discussed with our lawmakers. Please do not hesitate to send an email or make a phone call to your U.S. Representative or Senator on any of these issues:

Reauthorization of Flood Insurance - PIA supports a long-term reauthorization of the NFIP that recognizes the key role agents play in delivering the program to consumers. The NFIP’s most recent five-year reauthorization expired on September 30, 2017. Leading up to that deadline, the 115th Congress was unable to agree on reforms to the program. As a result, the NFIP briefly lapsed three times. Since the 2017 deadline, the NFIP has been subject to a total of 16 extensions of varying lengths, none longer than the one-year extension currently in effect. The program is now set to expire on September 30, 2021.

Create Cannabis Safe Harbor for Agents - PIA supports legislation to protect agents, brokers, and insurers against federal criminal prosecution and civil liability for those who engage in the business of insurance with cannabis-related businesses in states that have legalized cannabis in some form.

Nearly every state has legalized the use of marijuana to some degree. Unfortunately, the insurance industry is potentially exposed to civil and criminal liability arising from the differences between the legal status of cannabis in federal and state law. To do their jobs effectively, insurance agents need protection from prosecution in the form of a comprehensive federal safe harbor for agents, brokers, and insurers that engage in the business of insurance with cannabis-related enterprises in states that have legalized cannabis.

Repeal of the Federal Insurance Office – PIA was the first organization to call for the repeal of the Federal Insurance Office, or FIO, in 2016. The FIO is a bureaucracy created by the DoddFrank Wall Street Reform Act of 2010, and it should never have been created. Insurance regulations are best handled by the states, but some lawmakers would like to centralize regulation in Washington. Those lawmakers hope to expand the role and size of the FIO, in time.

This session, the bill is S. 524 and is authored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Our efforts to explain this bill to the Wisconsin delegation in Washington yielded two new supporters of the effort on the House side, where we hope to get a companion bill introduced.

These are just a couple of the issues PIA is speaking to members of Congress and their staff about. PIAW continues to review issues and advocate for independent insurance agents on issues that affect us. If you have questions, or are interested in helping with our advocacy efforts, please contact Pete or Natalie at PIAW.

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