Latest Legislation Headlines

All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.

EPA Wants to Rescind Obama Chemical Plant Regulations

May 18 2018 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took steps on Thursday to roll back and delay Obama-era rules aimed at improving safety at chemical plants, which had come in response to a 2013 explosion at a fertilizer plant in...

Insurers Urge Focus on Safety and Data Sharing in Autonomous Vehicles

May 18 2018 // While automated driving systems hold great promise to save lives and reduce crashes, the focus must remain on validating the safety of the technology every step of the way, according to the National Association of Mutual...

Costs for Some Speeding Tickets Going Down in Oklahoma

May 17 2018 // A new law going into effect in Oklahoma will cut the cost of a basic speeding ticket by more than half. The law, which goes into effect in early August and expires in November 2020, will reduce the cost of tickets issued...

Russia Delays Proposal to Criminalize Compliance with U.S Sanctions

May 17 2018 // Russian lawmakers on Thursday voted to postpone the second reading of a bill being discussed in the lower house of parliament that would make it a crime to comply with Western sanctions on Russia. The lower house said it...

Regulatory Climate Rated Top Emerging Risk in Latin America

May 17 2018 // While cyberattacks ranked as the most significant emerging risk for organizations around the world, the regulatory environment in Latin America ranked highest for risk professionals in that region according to the newly...

Judge Rules Anonymous Teens Can’t Take Part in NRA Suit Over Florida Law

May 16 2018 // A Florida judge denied the National Rifle Association’s request to have two 19-year-old gun enthusiasts anonymously join the group’s lawsuit challenging new age requirements for gun purchases. The NRA sued...

GDPR Insurance: Coverage for Fines Hard to Find But Other Non-Compliance Costs Insurable

May 16 2018 // The civil fines for non-compliance with the European’s new data privacy law can be steep but organizations across Europe should not expect to have their insurance cover them. Unless the business or organization is in...

You Can’t Just Say “Yes, There’s Coverage”

May 16 2018 // A couple of recent articles in Insurance Journal highlighted an important issue that exists in light of coverage and how hard it is to answer a question broadly. The problem (broadly) is that no two carriers’...

Nations with National Regulatory Policies Outpacing U.S. on Driverless Cars

May 15 2018 // Cars that drive themselves are finding the clearest paths to showrooms in the U.K., Germany, South Korea and Singapore, where governments have enacted legislation allowing autonomous vehicles to be tested on public roads....

Judge Scolds Facebook for ‘Faulty Proposition’ Over Privacy Claims

May 15 2018 // A judge scolded Facebook Inc. for misconstruing his own rulings as he ordered the company to face a high-stakes trial accusing it of violating user privacy. The social media giant has misinterpreted prior court orders by...

Republican Farm Bill Sows Bipartisan Discontent

May 15 2018 // Farm legislation usually has enough incentives to satisfy everyone across the partisan divide in Congress. Not this year. The Republican version set for a House vote on Friday contains so many unpalatable provisions that...

NRA Sues New York, Alleging First Amendment Violations in Insurance Crackdown

May 11 2018 // The National Rifle Association (NRA) has filed a lawsuit against New York’s insurance regulator and Governor Andrew Cuomo, alleging a regulatory overreach by New York officials that has resulted in violations of the...

Slape, Walker Promoted at Texas Insurance Department

May 11 2018 // Insurance Commissioner Kent Sullivan has promoted Doug Slape to second-in-command at the Texas Department of Insurance. Slape has been at the agency since 1988 and has served as deputy commissioner for the Financial...

Connecticut Lawmakers Vote to Add $12 Fee to Help Homeowners

May 11 2018 // Legislation adding a $12 annual surcharge on insurance policies of every Connecticut residential homeowner to help those homeowners with crumbling foundations is moving to the governor’s desk. The state Senate on...

Password Stolen; Create a New One. What If Your Retina Scan or Fingerprint Is Stolen?

May 11 2018 // A retail store’s ability to authenticate customers by scanning their unique ear or retinal patterns may seem like something out of a sci-fi movie, but this type of identification technology isn’t...

Louisiana Senators Reject Statewide Rules for Uber, Lyft

May 10 2018 // Louisiana state lawmakers again have spurned efforts to enact statewide regulations governing ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft. Facing pushback from senators, House Speaker Taylor Barras pulled House Bill 749...

Connecticut House Passes $12 Fee to Help Crumbling Foundation Homeowners

May 10 2018 // Connecticut moved closer Saturday toward adding a $12 annual surcharge on the insurance policies of every residential homeowner to financially help hundreds, if not thousands, of homeowners with crumbling foundations pay...

U.S. Selects 10 Drone Test Projects

May 10 2018 // The U.S. Transportation Department’s 10 winning drone pilot projects aimed at spurring the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in a wide variety of fields do not include Amazon.com Inc. and China’s DJI, but do...

Ohio Looking at Increased Oversight of Amusement Park Rides

May 9 2018 // State lawmakers will consider whether to increase oversight of carnival rides, including hiring more inspectors, following a deadly accident at the Ohio State Fair that flung riders onto the midway. The proposed changes...

With Just Weeks to Go for GDPR, Europe’s Regulators Say They’re Underfunded, Unprepared

May 9 2018 // FRANKFURT/BRUSSELS/PARIS— Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been billed as the biggest shake-up of data privacy laws since the birth of the web. There’s one problem: many of the...