If Rep. Ed Royce's (R-Calif.) confrontational letter to the NAIC, sent Feb. 28, was timed to force some kind of reaction during the body's March 3 to 6 Spring national meeting in New Orleans, it would appear to have succeeded. Congressman Royce, a long-time proponent of Optional Federal Charter (OFC) demanded that the NAIC clarify whether it is or is not a regulator. Speaking at the NAIC meeting, Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak called the FIO unconstitutional and called upon other state insurance departments to investigate the federal office. SNL's Sean Carr reports:
…Doak announced that he asked Oklahoma Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt to investigate the constitutionality of the FIO. The announcement, made at a joint committee of state regulators and legislators, was met with silence.The FIO is a usurpation of states' rights and the traditional system of state-based insurance regulation enshrined in the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945, Doak told SNL after the meeting. "It's eventually going to get into oversight of everything in the insurance department," he said.
