Treasury gains power to override state insurance rules for trade deals
H.R. 7130 — McCarran-Ferguson Restoration Act · Filed by Troy Downing (R-MT) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill eliminates the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) within the Treasury Department and replaces it with a new position called the US Insurance Representative. The Representative gains broad authority to preempt state insurance regulations if they treat foreign insurers less favorably than domestic ones or conflict with international trade agreements on insurance. The bill also adds a state insurance commissioner to the Financial Stability Oversight Council and modifies how federal agencies coordinate on insurance matters.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is not consumer protection or federal oversight—it is a trade-policy tool that empowers a Treasury official to override state insurance rules on grounds of international trade consistency. The FIO's elimination removes a consumer-focused counterweight.
- Addition of state insurance commissioner to Financial Stability Oversight Council is substantively unrelated to the core FIO elimination and preemption mechanism; it restructures federal financial stability governance.
What the text implies
- The preemption standard ('less favorable treatment of non-US insurer') is asymmetrical: it protects foreign insurers from state regulation but does not protect US insurers from foreign regulatory barriers, potentially creating a one-way deregulatory ratchet.
- State insurance measures on rates, premiums, underwriting, and solvency are explicitly carved out from preemption, but the bill's definition of 'prudential measures' is broad and undefined, creating ambiguity about what state rules can actually survive.
- The US Insurance Representative's authority to determine 'substantially equivalent' consumer protection is delegated to a Treasury official with no explicit consumer-protection mandate, unlike the FIO which had explicit consumer-focus language.
- Annual reporting requirement to Congress on preemption actions begins only 2 years after enactment, creating a 2-year window where preemption determinations may occur with minimal legislative oversight.
- The bill removes FIO's role in monitoring insurance market stability and consumer issues, fragmenting federal insurance intelligence across multiple agencies without a dedicated consumer-protection focal point.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens lose a dedicated federal office focused on insurance consumer protection and state coordination, replacing it with a narrower trade-focused role. The preemption mechanism prioritizes foreign insurer market access over state consumer protections, potentially weakening insurance regulation at the state level where most consumer safeguards historically reside.
Who stands to gain
- foreign insurance companies and reinsurers seeking US market access
- multinational insurance groups
- reinsurance firms operating across borders
Named in the bill
Federal Insurance Office, US Insurance Representative, Department of the Treasury, International Association of Insurance Supervisors, National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Financial Stability Oversight Council, State insurance regulators, Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 5 Republicans.
- Jan 16, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 16, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Financial Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
5 lobbying clients named this bill on 6 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $2,621,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 38 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 78% of bills with at least one filing.
Troy Downing, the sponsor, reported $762,100 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Chubb Ina Holdings Inc. — $750,000 on 1 filing
- Reinsurance Assn of America — $710,000 on 2 filings
- Pacific Life Insurance Company — $480,000 on 1 filing
- Principal Financial Group — $401,000 on 1 filing
- Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America — $280,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 23, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (14,654 characters) on Aug 17, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 23, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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