H.R. 3437: Insurance Data Protection Act

HR3437, the Insurance Data Protection Act, would narrow the federal government's reach over insurance-company information. The bill's central move is to amend existing law so the Federal Insurance Office and the Office of Financial Research have less power to obtain, use, and pass around nonpublic insurance data. That is a meaningful shift because both offices sit inside the federal financial-regulation system, and this bill would draw a harder line around what insurance information can be touched and shared.

One major change is in 31 U.S.C. § 313(e). Section 2 strikes paragraph (6), which removes a specific subpoena and enforcement authority previously granted to the Federal Insurance Office. In plain terms, the bill takes away one of the office's explicit legal tools for compelling information. For insurers, that means less risk of being forced by that office to turn over data under that paragraph.

The bill also tightens confidentiality rules. In 31 U.S.C. § 313(e)(5)(A), it adds a ban on sharing "nonpublicly available data and information with or by the Office among any other Federal agency, any State insurance regulator (or any agent of such a regulator), or any other entity." That is broad language: it reaches federal agencies, state insurance regulators, the regulators' agents, and any other entity. Related edits to 31 U.S.C. § 313(e)(5)(C)(ii) and 31 U.S.C. § 313(e)(5)(D) expand protected privileges and clarify that existing exceptions under the relevant section of the United States Code still apply.

A second major limit lands on the Office of Financial Research. Section 4 amends 12 U.S.C. § 5343(f)(1) to prohibit that office from collecting data directly from an "insurance company," using the definition in section 201(a) of the Financial Stability Act of 2010. Section 5 then adds a new confidentiality provision to the Financial Stability Act of 2010, codified in 12 U.S.C. § 5311 et seq., and makes a technical update to the Dodd-Frank table of contents by inserting an item for section 176. The bill does not provide a dollar figure, grant program, or new funding stream; it is mainly a limits-and-privacy bill aimed at federal data handling.