In response to the advocacy of the insurance industry, Congress has considered several significant pieces of legislation in recent years to weaken state insurance regulation and replace it with looser federal oversight. One prominent proposal would allow insurers to choose whether to be regulated at the state or federal level, known as an optional federal charter. Another would have blocked the states from regulating insurance rates. In an attempt to staunch the political support for federal deregulatory measures, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has urged states to adopt a number of steps in the last decade to reduce consumer protections for automobile and homeowner’s insurance. Meanwhile, industry-sponsored academics have generated a spate of reports that seek to discredit rate regulation in particular as anti-consumer and to offer economic arguments for deregulation.