Sponsors (6)
The bill centralizes insurance authority in Treasury and strengthens federal coordination (including international engagement and a formal FSOC role for state commissioners) to improve clarity and potential cost savings, but it does so by eliminating the independent Federal Insurance Office and concentrating power in ways that risk reduced specialized oversight, erosion of state authority, legal uncertainty, and politicization.
Financial institutions, state regulators, and consumers gain clearer, centralized federal insurance authority under the Secretary of the Treasury (or a named Representative), which reduces ambiguity and can speed interagency decision-making on insurance matters.
U.S. insurers (and their customers) get clearer federal coordination on international prudential insurance rules and potential Treasury assistance negotiating covered agreements, which can reduce cross‑border regulatory uncertainty and improve access to foreign markets.
State consumer protections and policyholder rights are better preserved because preemption is limited—federal preemption requires substantially equivalent consumer protections—reducing the chance of wholesale displacement of state consumer safeguards.
Consumers, state regulators, and industry stakeholders will lose an independent Federal Insurance Office, reducing specialized expertise, independent advocacy, transparency, and ongoing monitoring of the insurance sector.
State insurance regulators and local laws risk being overridden or weakened when covered agreements or centralized Treasury authority preempt state measures, eroding state control and creating potential intergovernmental tensions.
Federal employees who work in the Federal Insurance Office will face job losses or reassignments when the office and director post are eliminated.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Abolishes the Federal Insurance Office, creates a United States Insurance Representative in Treasury, shifts FIO duties to Treasury or the Representative, and adds a State insurance commissioner to FSOC.
Official title: To eliminate the Federal Insurance Office of the Department of the Treasury and to establish a United States Insurance Representative within the Department of the Treasury, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 16, 2026 by Troy Downing · Last progress January 16, 2026
Eliminates the Federal Insurance Office and replaces it with a new Office led by a Presidential appointee called the United States Insurance Representative inside the Department of the Treasury, and shifts many statutory functions previously assigned to the FIO to the Secretary of the Treasury or the new Representative. It narrows the stated scope of federal authority over certain insurance product categories, requires the Treasury to appoint the Representative and hire insurance-expert staff within one year, and updates related statutory cross-references. Adds a presidentially appointed State insurance commissioner as a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) (with Senate confirmation and an NAIC-based nomination process), modifies FSOC membership language to include the new United States Insurance Representative as a nonvoting member, and removes or narrows several explicit statutory roles previously given to the Federal Insurance Office in financial-stability and data-collection provisions.