Kevin Kiley was elected to the House of Representatives in 2022 to represent the 3rd congressional district of California. Prior to his election to the United States Congress, Rep. Kiley served in the California State Assembly, and in 2020 was named National Legislator of the Year by the Association of Independent Workers. Rep. Kiley earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, and a JD from Yale Law School. Why He’s Important to Agents: Rep. Kiley introduced H.J. Res. 116, a Congressional Review Act resolution which passed in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on ..read more

On March 22, Congress again avoided a partial government shutdown after reaching a last-minute deal to fund the federal government through the remainder of the 2024 fiscal year. Included in the agreement, known as a “minibus”, was an extension of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The NFIP will now be funded through September 30, 2024. This extension marks the 30th short-term extension of the NFIP since its last five-year reauthorization expired in 2017. In advance of that deadline, the 115th Congress was unable to agree on NFIP reforms, leading to a seemingly endless string of ..read more

As the March 22 expiration date for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) quickly approaches, members of Congress need to hear from agents urging them to act to prevent a lapse of the NFIP. The history of NFIP extensions has been messy. In 2017, the NFIP’s last five-year reauthorization expired. Since then, the NFIP has been subject to 29 short-term reauthorizations, sometimes lasting for only weeks at a time. Congress’s inability to pass a long-term reauthorization has had substantial ramifications for policyholders and agents. The NFIP briefly lapsed three times in 2018 alone ..read more

The Risk Management Agency (RMA), responsible for supervising the federal crop insurance program, has issued a Managers bulletin to Approved Insurance Providers (AIPs), instructing them to immediately stop any cancellation of agent/agency contracts. Recently, some AIPs have been scaling back their federal crop insurance operations in specific crops, insurance plans, and geographic regions. Steps to transition the business to other AIPs include terminating agent/agency contracts and reducing their compensation. Termination notices have been issued with insufficient time for agents/agencies to a ..read more

PIA recently joined letters to oppose two harmful federal rules proposed by the Department of Labor (DOL). The first rule, titled “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees,” would change overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and harm employers and employees alike. The second rule sets the enforcement standard DOL will use for determining whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor.                &nbs ..read more

In a win for PIA, consumers, and supporters of the state insurance regulatory system, the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) announced that it was abandoning its unprecedented effort to collect data on climate-related risks from property and casualty insurance carriers on behalf of the federal government. Instead, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) will now lead this effort. For the past three years, the FIO, which is housed within the Treasury Department, had been pursuing this carrier data call as part of the Biden administration’s expansive efforts to address climate-rel ..read more

Congress again avoided a partial government shutdown last week by passing a short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to fund the federal government. Last week’s CR reauthorized all government programs, but, like its predecessor, it divided the budget in half along the same lines as it had previously, using two separate expiration dates. The most recent CR extends funding for government programs previously set to expire on March 1 until March 8. Funding for the rest of the federal government, previously set to expire on March 8, is now set to expire on March 22. This st ..read more

PIA supports the bipartisan Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workforce Act (H.R.1477/S.722), sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA). This bill would help American workers access the training and credentials necessary to pursue fulfilling careers, including a career as an independent insurance agent. The Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workforce Act would expand expenses covered by flexible education investment accounts, called 529 plans, that are exempt from federal taxes if used to pay for certain educational expenses. This expansion would include coverage of p ..read more

Katie Britt was elected to the United States Senate in 2022 to represent the state of Alabama. Prior to her election to the Senate, Sen. Britt held senior positions in the office of former Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, including press secretary and chief of staff. Sen. Britt also served as president and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama and was the first woman elected to lead the organization. Sen. Britt is also the first woman elected to represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate. Sen. Britt earned both a political science and law degree from the University of Alabama.    &nb ..read more

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee held a hearing on January 25 entitled, “Reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program: Local Perspectives on Challenges and Solutions.” PIA submitted written testimony for the record for the hearing, noting our support for the NFIP because it provides critical flood insurance coverage and post-disaster relief to residential and commercial policyholders. In its written testimony, PIA noted that property owners rely on the NFIP for essential flood coverage, particularly in high-risk areas, and that the role of the agent ..read more