Open up to legislators, state commissioners!

The following is a letter sent by R.I. State Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy, who is also vice president of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, to Walter A. Bell, Alabama insurance commissioner and current president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

I write to you as a follow-up to our telephone conversation on July 12, 2007, before the recent summer meeting of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) in Seattle. I think it is important to have open and free dialogue between state legislators and our state insurance commissioners and supervisors, as we attempt to work cooperatively to maintain a state-based regulatory system in the United States.

During the past year, I have expressed angst and concern to you both verbally and in writing about the excessive use of Executive Sessions of not only our insurance commissioners and supervisors, but also staff-run meetings at the NAIC quarterly conferences. I think it is important to bring transparency to these meetings and shed some sunshine on the NAIC’s manner of conducting business. Since the use of closed sessions for “legislative strategy” has only been drafted for use in the NAIC Policy Statement on Open Meetings since 2002-early 2003, it might be a major step forward towards openness to consider repealing that portion of the Policy Statement, while still maintaining the remaining reasons to have Executive Sessions that no one is challenging as being inappropriate.

Legislators’ dialogue
During our telephone conversation I mentioned that I would like to propose a new session at future NAIC meetings (NAIC-Legislators Dialogue) to allow legislators present at the NAIC quarterly conferences to interact with those insurance commissioners and supervisors present and to hopefully provide an opportunity to discuss potential model acts, accreditation standards, or other issues of concern to legislators that are the result of recent NAIC decisions. At the present time, there are no scheduled meetings on the quarterly agenda that are devoted to the legislator’s dialogue, while there are such meetings for consumers and the insurance companies.

I recognize that one of the key goals of your presidency has been to decrease the number of conference days for the NAIC meetings and to reduce the total number of meeting sessions. I applaud you for achieving that goal but do believe that a new NAIC-Legislators’ Dialogue would prove invaluable by creating an opportunity to have a designated time for legislators to participate in NAIC sessions.

With legislators already attending the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission meetings on the Friday before the start of the NAIC conference, a Saturday morning meeting of the NAIC and legislators would work well, before legislators return to their home states. I also believe that by designating the meeting for legislators, it does not single out any one particular legislative organization and crates an opportunity for legislators in general to become involved. I believe that state legislators should be encouraged to attend your future meetings in order to gain a better understanding of the NAIC, the meeting goals and the accreditation process.

I look forward to seeing you in Washington, D.C. in September at the Fall NAIC meeting. I hope that this will be a step towards bridging the divide.

R.I. Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy is NCOIL vice president.