Urging The Congress Of The United States To Enact A National Reinsurance Program To Address The Multi-state Insurance Crisis Resulting From Catastrophic Natural Disasters.
SCR57 is a Senate Concurrent Resolution urging the U.S. Congress to create a national reinsurance program to respond to the growing insurance crisis caused by catastrophic natural disasters. The resolution describes how hurricanes, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, and other extreme events have increased losses and driven private insurers and reinsurers out of high-risk markets, leaving homeowners, businesses, and agricultural producers with fewer coverage options and higher premiums. It points to state-run or state-supported insurers of last resort, including Hawaii’s Property Insurance Association, as evidence that current state-level tools are under strain.
The resolution asks Congress to establish a federal backstop that would cover only the most extreme catastrophic losses, while preserving a primary role for private insurers and reinsurers. It also recommends that the program be actuarially sound, include state opt-in participation, and use clearly defined loss thresholds to protect taxpayers. In addition, it urges federal mitigation incentives such as premium discounts, tax credits, and grants for disaster-resistant construction, and encourages interim federal steps like expanded access to risk modeling and incentives for insurers to return to high-risk markets.
SCR57 does not directly amend Hawaii statutes or create a new state program; instead, it expresses the Legislature’s position and formally petitions Congress and federal agencies to act. Its practical impact is advisory and political, but it highlights Hawaii’s interest in federal insurance stabilization policy and specifically references the Hawaii Property Insurance Association as part of the broader market problem. If adopted federally, the proposed national reinsurance framework could affect insurers, reinsurers, state insurance regulators, homeowners, businesses, and agricultural producers in disaster-prone states by improving availability of coverage and moderating premium volatility.
The overall sentiment reflected in the bill text and committee action is supportive of the resolution’s goals. The measure passed the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee 4-0, indicating unanimous support in that committee. The resolution frames the issue as an urgent market stability and consumer affordability problem and presents the proposed federal response as a practical, bipartisan-style solution to a nationwide crisis.
The main policy tension is not over whether insurance markets are under stress, but over how much federal involvement is appropriate and how the program should be designed. The resolution itself anticipates concerns about taxpayer exposure by emphasizing actuarial soundness, loss thresholds, and private-market participation, suggesting that some stakeholders may worry about federal subsidy, moral hazard, or crowding out private insurers. Another point of debate is whether a national reinsurance program is the right long-term fix versus state-based reforms or other federal resilience measures; the resolution notes that recent federal disaster bills address resilience and recovery but not the underlying insurance availability problem.