On March 29 the House Committee on Insurance heard testimony on HB 1951 by Representative Larry Taylor, the Sunset bill relating to the continuation and operation of the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) and the operation of certain insurance programs. In a basic overview Taylor listed the major provisions of the bill, which include bringing predictability and transparency to TDI’s use of property and casualty insurance regulatory tools, setting a 30-day time limit for TDI to review and administratively disapprove a rate on the file-and-use system, requiring TDI to define the processes used to request additional information about rate filings for the insurers, requiring TDI to define the factors that could result in an insurance company being placed under prior approval, and requiring TDI to evaluate the need for insurers to remain under prior approval regulation in the process for returning to file-and-use regulation. HB 1951 also proposes continuing TDI for 12 more years. Committee Chairman John Smithee said his intent was to vote HB 1951 out of committee by April 15 after they have had a few weeks to continue to work on the bill.
