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Senator Ben Nelson-Doing the Right Thing

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Senator Ben Nelson-Doing the Right Thing Sen. Ben Nelson with PIA National Senior Vice President Patricia A. Borowski. By Patricia A. Borowski Senior Vice President, Industry Affairs BEN NELSON PIA National DOING THE RIGHT THING Part 2 On January 31, 2016, Sen. Ben Nelson will step down as CEO of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), a position he has held for two years since retiring from the U.S. Senate. Last month, PIA Connection published Part One of a two-part article, which focused on Nelson’s insurance career. This month, PIA National Senior Vice President of Industry Affairs Patricia A. Borowski, who has known and worked closely with Sen. Nelson over several decades, speaks with him about Washington gridlock, and what must be done to break it. FORMER NEBRASKA seat in 2000 and won, defeating Republican “THE PEOPLE BACK Governor and U.S. Senator Ben Nelson Attorney General Don Stenberg. Then, he was a man steeped in insurance when he repeated the re-election turnaround he HOME HAVE TO WANT broadened his horizons in 1990. He ran achieved as governor, winning a second for governor, in what turned out to be his term in the Senate with 63.9 of the vote MEMBERS TO COME state’s fourth-closest gubernatorial race in over Republican opponent Pete Ricketts. history, in 1990. Then, he was easily re- A Democrat in a deep-red Republican BACK HERE AND GET elected in 1994 with 74% of the vote—the state, Nelson earned a reputation as the largest margin of victory for a governor in most conservative Democrat in both the THINGS DONE.” half a century. governor’s mansion and in the U.S. Senate. After coming up short in a Senate It was in the Senate where Nelson’s willing- campaign in 1996 to Republican Chuck ness to break repeatedly with his party and Hagel, he ran for Nebraska’s other Senate to work assiduously to achieve bipartisan PIA CONNECTION | www.pianet.com January 2016 | 15 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 BEN NELSON compromise won him the respect of many “I LEGISLATED, AND PEOPLE WHO WANTED IT of his colleagues. However, the balance Nelson struck [THE ACA] KILLED DIDN’T LIKE THE FACT THAT I and his resulting legislative achievements LEGISLATED.” came at what turned out to be the tail end of a different era in American politics, one in which compromise was not yet a dirty word. me by the shoulders and said ‘Governor, send people back here to put a ‘stick in the “When Ronald Reagan was able to you saved the Senate!’ I told him I appreci- spokes’ to stop things. They want to shut achieve a compromise, it wasn’t a four- ated it, but we all had something to do with down government. So, until there are fewer letter word,” observed Nelson. “Today, it’s a it. He said, ‘No you started this.’” of those folks, and more of the others who four-letter word.” But since then, attitudes have hardened look at the job as getting something done, “When people are looking at things as as gridlock took hold. “It happened in it won’t change.” all-or-nothing, black or white, it makes it a very brief period of time. It started to Sen. Nelson said that when it came to much more difficult. We saw the coining happen, then culminated in a couple of consideration of the Affordable Care Act of a new word: ‘primary’ as a verb. That election cycles. It’s still there.” (ACA), he supported a procedural vote changed circumstances for a lot of people What caused the change? to move the debate forward, ending a on the other side of the aisle, because there “What stopped the collegiality years Republican filibuster and paving the way was a growing number within their party and years ago, maybe decades ago, is that for Senate consideration of the legisla- who would work to take them out if they everybody goes home for the weekend,” tion. But subsequently, he voted against didn’t toe the line.” said Nelson. “So, there’s very little social life the ACA itself, though that vote was less It wasn’t always that way. Nelson points back here in D.C. for members when they critical, as it was considered as a reconcili- with pride to his role forging in 2005 what go home. They don’t socialize. John Breaux ation bill that was not subject to filibuster was called the “Gang of 14,” a bipartisan and Trent Lott used to live next door to and required only a simple majority. Still, group of senators that came together to each other, they raised their kids together. Nelson defended his role in the process, break the legislative gridlock enough That’s changed. Lawmakers show up for saying of the ACA, “I am willing to fight to to allow up-or-down votes on judicial votes most of the time, they have their improve it, but not to repeal it.” nominees. committee hearings, but what’s missing is “At that time, if we had been faced with “That brought a lot of us together, the collegiality that existed, and that col- the ACA [first] getting presented as a bud- where we had a common idea and com- legiality contributed to bipartisanship.” get reconciliation resolution, you would mon goal and were willing to put aside “Partisanship was much less of a factor only have needed 50 votes to pass it, [and] partisan differences in order to achieve it,” in anything we tried to work together to they would have had the public option in he said. “It was in the best interest of this do. It’s hard to bring that about today.” it, because it generated income,” he said. country to have appellate judges to get Asked what it will take to restore that “The public option was nothing more than up-or-down votes. Then, it carried over to collegiality so Congress can again come to a very thinly disguised government plan other areas where we could work together.” agreements, forge solutions and actually that when the roll-out was inadequate, it He cites the close working relation- pass legislation, Nelson said such a change would have been an easy target to move ships he forged with colleagues such as will not come from Washington. Rather, people over to the public option. Then it Trent Lott, John McCain, and the late Ted the people must insist on it. would have been a government plan, the Stevens and Robert Byrd. He said after “It has to happen back home,” he says. private plans would be disappearing. If you the success of the Gang of 14 in breaking “The people back home have to want think the subsidies are big for the private the filibuster on George W. Bush’s judicial members to come back here and get things plans, what do you suppose they’d be for a nominees, Sen. Byrd—considered the dean done. There’s a whole segment of people— government plan?” of the Senate—“ came up to me, grabbed quite a sizable number—who want to “I had to decide the lesser of bad “AIG COULD HAVE RAIDED ALL THE ASSETS OF THE INSUREDS,” IF THE U.S. HAD AN INSURANCE REGULATORY SYSTEM LIKE EUROPE’S. 16 | January 2016 www.pianet.com | PIA CONNECTION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16 BEN NELSON NELSON ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INSURANCE REGULATION IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES: “THEY PROTECT THE ENTITY, WE PROTECT THE PUBLIC.” choices,” he said. “I’m not apologetic that could take those jobs.” we have something in place. I’m apologetic In the Senate, he said it would have to that people in Congress did not step for- be the Gang of 14, getting up-or-down CLE PAR A T ward to try to find a way to make it work votes on judicial nominations. N N N E I for the public, as opposed to the partisan Looking ahead, Nelson said the chal- R talking points.” lenges the insurance industry faces from P “I legislated, and people who wanted it Congress now are fewer. He is more con- killed didn’t like the fact that I legislated,” cerned with some of the ‘alphabet’ federal he added. “They’d prefer I just vote no. I agencies such as the Treasury Department didn’t expect them to understand all the and the Federal Reserve trying to do more nuances in Washington, but I knew that in insurance, something he says state regu- because they didn’t understand, they would lators will have to push back against. 2016 PIA NATIONAL misunderstand what we were doing.” The biggest threat he sees is from the PINNACLE PARTNERS international side, with the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the International Bankers Insurance Group Association of Insurance Supervisors Encompass Insurance When asked to list the accomplish- (IAIS) trying to dictate to the United Erie Insurance ments he’s proudest of, Ben Nelson ticks off States how it should handle the regulation Harleysville Insurance several. of insurance. “It’s going to be a long slog. “If I go back to insurance regulation, as We’re going to have to keep pushing back Progressive Insurance the director in Nebraska we were the first against it. That’s the biggest threat that I see State Auto Group state in the medical malpractice crisis to right now.” The Hartford end up with a private market again. ISO It is hard for anyone to sum up five The Motorists Insurance Group came in and filed rates that weren’t through decades of serving the public in one phrase Wright Flood the sky,” he said.
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