Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Court Rules Against Notre Dame over Insurance Coverage for Birth Control
Feb 24 2014 // A federal appeals court in Chicago has ruled against the University of Notre Dame, located in South Bend, Ind., in a case over parts of the federal health care law that forces it to provide health insurance for students...
House Republicans Release Flood Insurance Relief Bill
Feb 24 2014 // House GOP leaders last week put the final touches on legislation that would significantly water down a recently enacted overhaul of the much criticized federal flood insurance program, easing many premium increases and...
Technical and Medical Device Convergence Exposes New World of Risks
Feb 24 2014 // When the acclaimed television drama series Homeland climaxed with a devious plot by terrorists to kill the U.S. vice president by hacking into his electronic pacemaker, critics mocked the ludicrousness of the idea deeming...
Technology’s Opening a Whole New World of Agent E&O Exposures
Feb 24 2014 // Those in the insurance industry have another errors and omission (E&O) risk to consider these days, and they have technology to thank for it. Anyone in the insurance industry that possesses, stores, transmits or...
State Laws Complicate Data Breach Notification Policy
Feb 24 2014 // Data thefts at U.S. retailers have rekindled enthusiasm in Congress for a single federal law on how customers should be notified about such breaches, but those efforts face the same roadblock as in the past: dozens of...
Vermont’s New Law Seeks to Attract Runoff Businesses
Feb 24 2014 // A new law in Vermont would soon authorize the state to license and regulate specialized Vermont-based companies whose only purpose would be to buy and manage closed blocks of non-admitted commercial insurance policies and...
N.Y. Regulator Moving Ahead on Bitcoin Regulation
Feb 24 2014 // New York’s financial regulator recently revealed new details on his agency’s plans to govern virtual currency firms in the state in order to protect consumers and combat money laundering. Benjamin Lawsky,...
U.S. Patent Office Moves to Curb Patent Litigation
Feb 21 2014 // The White House announced steps on Thursday designed to reduce frivolous patent lawsuits by trying to make it easier to identify who owns patents and by updating review processes to ensure that fewer weak patents are...
Vermont’s Legacy Insurance Management Act Signed Into Law
Feb 20 2014 // Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday signed the Vermont Legacy Insurance Management Act (LIMA). The new law would allow the formation of specialized, Vermont-based companies to acquire and manage closed blocks of...
Stricter Texting While Driving Measure Advances in Iowa
Feb 20 2014 // Iowa lawmakers granted initial approval of a bill that would further crack down on texting while driving by allowing officers to pull over motorists suspected of that sole offense. A three-member Senate transportation...
Conn. Lawmakers Propose Workers’ Comp Expansion for PTSD Coverage
Feb 20 2014 // Some Connecticut lawmakers have resurrected a proposal from last year to expand the state’s workers’ compensation law to cover employees who’ve suffered an emotional or mental impairment after witnessing...
Judge Refuses AIG Bid to Delay Bank of America $8.5B Settlement
Feb 19 2014 // Bank of America Corp.’s $8.5 billion settlement with mortgage-bond investors won’t be delayed after American International Group Inc. and other objectors asked for a hearing to address loan modifications...
Texas Cities Find Loophole in Health Insurance Exchange Training Rule
Feb 19 2014 // The Houston Health Department likely won’t have to pay for additional training for most of the “navigators” who are helping city residents enroll in the new federal health insurance marketplace. All it...
FSOC’s Insurance Expert Woodall Approved As International Regulatory Observer
Feb 18 2014 // Roy Woodall, the insurance sector voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, will finally be getting involved in the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) but as an observer, not a...
Vermont’s New Law Seeks to Attract Runoff Businesses
Feb 18 2014 // A new law in Vermont would soon authorize the state to license and regulate specialized Vermont-based companies whose only purpose would be to assume and manage closed blocks of non-admitted commercial insurance policies...
Mississippi Lawmakers Move to Tighten Law on Texting While Driving
Feb 18 2014 // Mississippi could tighten its law against sending text messages while driving. The House passed House Bill 484 last Thursday. It would ban texting while driving for anyone 18 or younger. Current law bans it for any younger...
Connecticut Gov. Proposes Bill to Ban ‘Vicious’ Label on Horses
Feb 14 2014 // Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed legislation Tuesday clarifying that domesticated horses cannot be considered vicious, responding to a legal claim over a horse at a Milford farm in Connecticut that threatens a...
Federal Judge: Virginia’s Gay-Marriage Ban Unconstitutional
Feb 14 2014 // Virginia’s ban on gay marriage was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge who said it violated the equal-protection rights of the state’s residents including couples married legally in other states. The...
UK’s BMS Names Darling New Group Corporate Governance Director
Feb 14 2014 // BMS Associates Limited, the independent specialist insurance group, has appointed Angela Darling as its new Group Corporate Governance Director with effect from early March. The newly created post “will bring...
Judge Blocks Oklahoma Firm from Selling Execution Drug to Missouri
Feb 13 2014 // A federal judge on Feb. 12 agreed to temporarily block an Oklahoma pharmacy from providing an execution drug to the Missouri Department of Corrections for use in an upcoming lethal injection. The temporary restraining...
