When PIA members travel to Capitol Hill for the March 17-18 PIA Federal Legislative Summit, they will focus on seven key areas of concern: federal interference in insurance regulation; efforts to repeal the industry’s limited federal antitrust exemption; healthcare reform; flood insurance; natural catastrophe legislation; producer licensing and crop insurance.

“Access to flood insurance is critical to our nation’s economy,” said PIA President-elect Brian Marino. “For the past two years, Congress has played Russian roulette with the real estate markets by granting temporary extensions to the flood insurance program that are too short to enable deliberation of comprehensive reforms. In fact, they just allowed the program to lapse for two days. Lawmakers need to extend the program for at least six months, or better yet a year, to give themselves enough time to accomplish true reform.”

In addition to legislative meetings on Capitol Hill, PIA members will meet with USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) officials on Friday, March 19 to discuss the federal crop insurance program in greater detail. PIA is concerned about a $4 billion cut that RMA is proposing in the crop insurance industry’s Standard Reinsurance Agreement, on top of the $6.4 billion cuts contained in the 2008 Farm Bill.

All FLS registrants will receive printed position papers, talking point note cards, tips for conducting successful congressional visits and other materials to ensure their visits are successful.

Register today for the 2010 PIA Federal Legislative Summit. For more information, click here or contact PIA’s Mike Becker at 703-518-1365 or mikebe@pianet.org.

PIA would like to thank the 2010 FLS Gold Level sponsors, The Hartford, Travelers and The PIA Partnership; and the 2010 Silver Level sponsors, Liberty Mutual Agency Markets, Motorists Insurance Group and Progressive for their generous contribution to this year’s event.

March 10, 2010