April 10, 2020
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and six of his GOP colleagues (Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo of Idaho, and Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and David Perdue of Georgia) sent this letter to the White House. This is impeccably timed as it contradicts the President’s assertion that “we can’t have that happen” with regard to insurers invoking business interruption exclusions for policyholders.
As the letter states, “First, insurance contracts are a foundational pillar of our economy and attempting to ex-post facto rewrite them through knee-jerk administrative action would undoubtedly undermine our insurance system and create major unintended consequences for new contractual relationships going forward. Second, if any attempts to legislatively or administratively rewrite insurance policies in this manner are successful, the action could be litigated in the courts for years, guaranteeing that no money would make it to small businesses that need it.”
We are grateful to Sen. Scott for his (ever-abiding) leadership on all insurance issues in Congress, and for each of these six senators who agree with him.