Florida Agents Make Their Voices Heard in Washington, D.C.

They came to Washington, D.C. last month on a mission and by all accounts, they accomplished it and then some.

A number of members from the Florida Association of Insurance Agents (FAIA) made the trek to visit their senators and congressmen on April 22 during the 28th annual Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers (IIABA) National Legislative Conference.

With stops planned throughout the day to visit numerous officials, including Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson, and Representatives Katherine Harris and Mark Foley among others, the agents hit Capitol Hill to have their issues heard.

Among those attending the meetings with officials was Alex Soto, president of Miami, Fla.-based InSource Inc.

Soto told Graham’s policy analyst prior to a short group meeting with the Senator, “We believe a federal regulator (of insurance) is a bad idea. Especially with Florida, one size does not fit all.” The Florida agents also addressed the issue of flood insurance, noting that the Sunshine State is the leader in the Top 10 states that write the coverage, and writes more than the next nine combined.

Bill Gunter, chairman and CEO of Tallahassee-based Rogers, Gunter, Vaughn Insurance told Insurance Journal Southeast that he felt “our visits with the Florida Congressional Delegation were very positive. They seemed impressed with our knowledge concerning those issues important to us, as well as the conviction we illustrated by our fly-in to Capitol Hill to speak to them personally. These eyeball to eyeball meetings gave us insight into the members of our delegation with whom we may need to do some more
educational work to get them on board.”

As a whole, Gunter felt the IIABA Legislative Conference was “well planned and executed. Briefings in the morning were especially helpful in refreshing us on the important legislative points to make to Congressmen and their staff. Plus, we had the principal players in both the House and Senate in connection with our issues as speakers.”

Gene Waddell, president of Vero Beach, Fla.-based Waddell Insurance Group, noted, “We have always preached to our legislative members that it is imperative to have a relationship with the member of congress or state house before you get to Washington or Tallahassee. We recognize the conference must be scheduled at a time certain and that Congress may or may not be active that day and you may or may not be able to see your Congressman or Senator in person. That being said, we were able to meet with all of our reps or their senior staff that were very aware of and conversant on our issues.”

Dan Dannenhauer, president of Fort Myers, Fla.-based Five County Insurance Agency, sent a letter to the IIABA, noting that the agents did have the opportunity to meet with a number of political leaders.

“Regarding Rep. (Mark) Foley, he was very supportive to every one of our issues,” Dannenhauer commented. “We thanked him for HR 1222, and pledged our support for him. It was a great meeting. Although other members of the Florida delegation are sending separate reply sheets, I thought that this e-mail might suffice for the five members that I visited. The other two were (Rep. Porter) Goss and (Rep. Katherine) Harris. “Goss was not in, but in committee meetings, and his staff rep Michael Barry met to discuss the issues. He stands with us on the Oxley bill and the Foley bill. The rest were unknown, but believed to favor us.”

While having a very brief exchange with Harris, Dannenhauer noted, “Her (Harris) staff was extremely polite and apologetic. Jennifer Platt spent 30 minutes with me assimilating the issues. She was very knowledgeable and asked that our IIABA staff stay closely connected with her.”