The California Assembly Appropriations Committee approved SB 953 (Speier), which limits to $250 contributions to the elected insurance commissioner by companies with business pending before the Department for a set time period. The bill will be heard next by the full Assembly. If it passes, the State Senate will take up the measure.

At his confirmation hearings, the newly appointed Insurance Commissioner, Harry W. Low, pledged to take no industry contributions if he runs for the elected post in 2002. Low was confirmed by a 72-0 vote in the Assembly today.

” This bill will move the state closer toward restoring the integrity of the office of the insurance commissioner and insulating it from the cash register politics played by the insurance industry during the Quackenbush Administration,” said Jamie Court, FTCR’s executive director. “Today’s bi-partisan praise fest for the confirmation of the new Insurance Commissioner should not end the Quackenbush scandal. Policyholders must be guaranteed that all future insurance watchdogs are free from the pecuniary pressure from the industry he or she regulates.”

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