Insurance regulation in a nutshell

(c)National Insurance Act of 2006

Unlike the SMART Act and the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act of 2006, which seek to impose uniform state regulatory standards on state insurers on selected matters, the National Insurance Act of 2006 (the “NIA”) was a comprehensive bill that would establish a federal insurance regulator to supervise the activities of federally chartered insurers (“National Insurers”), federally chartered insurance agencies (“National Agencies”) and federally licensed insurance producers. All aspects of regulation would be subject to federal standards – organization, licensing, financial, product and market regulation, reinsurance, corporate transactions, producers and holding company regulation. A National Insurer would be subject to receivership under federal law. Subject to limited exceptions, a National Insurer would not be subject to the application of state laws, including state insurance laws. The effect would create two parallel insurance regulatory systems – an insurer could remain in the state system and not be subject to federal regulation or an insurer could opt into the federal system and not be subject to state regulation. Hence, the legislation has been referred to as an “optional federal charter” (“OFC”) proposal.
The National Insurance Act of 2006 was introduced in the Senate as S. 2509 by Senators John E. Sununu and Tim Johnson on April 5, 2006 and in the House as H.R. 6225 by Representative Edward R. Royce on October 18, 2007.

(d)National Insurance Act of 2007

A new Congress, the 110^th Congress, began in 2007. Since both S. 2509 and H.R. 6225 were introduced in the 109^th Congress, they did not carry over for consideration in 2007.
The NIA was reintroduced as legislation in the House and the Senate in 2007 – as S. 40 in the Senate on May 24, 2007 (sponsored again by Senators John E. Sununu and Tim Johnson) and H.R. 3200 in the House on July 26, 2007 (this time by Representatives Melissa Bean and Edward R. Royce).