H.R. No. 243

	R E S O L U T I O N
	WHEREAS, The insurance business greatly depends on
	affiliated reinsurance for managing and spreading risk; and
	WHEREAS, Purchasing reinsurance from affiliates is a means
	for large insurers to manage capital and also serves an important
	risk-transfer purpose, providing significant additional primary
	insurance capacity, particularly for crop, windstorm, general
	liability, products liability, and aircraft insurance; and
	WHEREAS, Non-U.S.-based insurance companies with U.S.
	affiliates purchase reinsurance from parent and sister companies
	domiciled abroad, but a bill introduced in the United States
	Congress would penalize them for doing so, even though U.S. and
	foreign-based insurance groups currently pay functionally
	equivalent taxes on reinsurance transactions; given the average tax
	burden of 25 percent in European countries, such legislation would
	render most offshore reinsurance transactions prohibitively
	expensive, and the U.S. market would see a capacity shortfall and
	increases in premiums for consumers; and
	WHEREAS, A major study by the Brattle Group, an economic
	research and consulting firm, concluded that the proposed policy
	would result in a 20 percent reduction in the supply of reinsurance
	for consumers in the United States, in turn leading to annual cost
	increases of $10 to $12 billion; in addition, a broad coalition of
	industry and consumer groups have spoken out against the proposal;
	and
	WHEREAS, Taxation proposed in H.R. 3424, 111th Cong. (2009),
	discriminates against the use of offshore affiliated reinsurance by
	foreign-based companies and, if enacted, will severely undermine
	the risk management practices at the heart of international
	reinsurance markets; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 82nd Texas
	Legislature hereby express its opposition to H.R. 3424 and to any
	other proposal that would limit the use of reinsurance by
	non-U.S.-based insurance companies; and, be it further
	RESOLVED, That the chief clerk of the Texas House of
	Representatives forward official copies of this resolution to the
	president of the United States, to the president of the Senate and
	the speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States
	Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to Congress
	with the request that this resolution be entered in the
	Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United
	States of America.
	Howard of Fort Bend
	______________________________
	Speaker of the House
	I certify that H.R. No. 243 was adopted by the House on May
	13, 2011, by the following vote:  Yeas 144, Nays 0, 1 present, not
	voting.
	______________________________
	Chief Clerk of the House