Sponsors (27)
Official title: To eliminate the Federal Insurance Office of the Department of the Treasury, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 23, 2025 by Troy Downing · Last progress January 23, 2025
The bill trades modest federal administrative savings and simpler, centralized authority for the loss of a dedicated insurance office—reducing insurance-specific representation, expertise, and coordinated oversight and raising risks of regulatory gaps and weaker accountability.
State and federal regulators (including the Federal Reserve Board and state insurance regulators) get clearer, simpler authority and process for initiating and consulting on certain systemic-risk actions, which can speed decision-making and reduce procedural confusion.
Taxpayers and the Treasury could see modest administrative savings and simpler organizational lines by eliminating the independent FIO and routing its referenced functions through the Secretary of the Treasury, reducing duplication and centralizing interagency coordination.
States, consumers, and insurers lose a dedicated federal office that coordinated insurance policy, monitored insurance regulation, and advocated for consumer protections—reducing a visible, specialized federal advocate for insurance issues.
Insurance industry stakeholders lose an explicit statutory seat and an affirmative approval role in some FSOC systemic-risk actions, and FSOC may receive less direct insurance expertise—weakening insurance-specific input into systemic-risk oversight.
Removing the standalone FIO reduces centralized monitoring of national insurance issues, raising the risk of regulatory gaps, inconsistency across jurisdictions, and greater uncertainty for insurers and regulators.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Abolishes the Federal Insurance Office, removes FIO from FSOC and statute lists, and substitutes the Treasury Secretary in selected references.
Removes the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) inside Treasury, abolishing the Director position and repealing the statutory FIO authority. It shifts or preserves certain FIO references and roles by substituting the Secretary of the Treasury where needed and by editing Dodd‑Frank provisions to remove FIO from FSOC processes and information lists. The bill updates multiple statutes and cross‑references so the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and other statutory processes no longer explicitly list the FIO or its Director as a participant, and it narrows the initiation rule for certain systemic‑risk recommendations to be "on the initiative of the Board of Governors." The Secretary of the Treasury's broader insurance authorities are explicitly preserved in the repeal language.