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the Sherman and Clayton Acts for approximately two sessions of the State legislatures, so that the States and the Congress may consider legislation during that period. It should be noted that this bill, by the moratorium proposed therein, does not repeal the Sherman and Clayton Acts, but opportunity will have been granted for the States to permit agreements and contracts by insurance companies which otherwise might be in violation of the Sherman and Clayton Acts. It should be noted further that no moratorium is granted from the Sherman Act relative to agreements or acts of boycott, coercion, or intimidation.

ANALYSIS BY SECTION

Section 1 declares that the continued regulation and taxation by the States of the business of insurance is in the public interest.

Section 2 provides that the insurance business, and all persons engaged in such business, shall be subject to State laws relating to the regulation and taxation of such business; and (b) that no act of Congress shall be construed to invalidate, impair, or supersede any State law which regulates or taxes the insurance business, unless such act specifically so provides.

Section 3 provides that the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Robinson-Patman Antidiscrimination Act shall not apply to the insurance business, or to acts in the conduct of such business.

Section 4 suspends the application of the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act to the business of insurance until January 1, 1948, for the purpose of enabling adjustments to be made and legislation to be adopted by the several States and Congress; and (b) provides that at no time are the prohibitions in the Sherman Act against any act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation suspended. These provisions of the Sherman Act remain in full force and effect.

Section 5 provides that the enactment of this act shall not affect, in any manner, the present application of the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, or the Merchant Marine Act, to the business of insurance.

Section 6 defines the term "State."

Section 7 provides for separability of provisions.

CONCLUSION

In the considered judgment of your committee, H. R. 1973 represents a most commendable effort on the part of insurance companies and State insurance commissioners to effect the adjustments and reorganization in and among the financial operations of insurance companies and in State laws which have been made necessary by the decision in the Southeastern Underwriters case. It should be emphasized that the bill has received the overwhelming endorsement of the principal national organizations of State insurance commissioners, insurance executives, agents, brokers, and underwriters, including the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the American Life Convention, the American Mutual Alliance, the Association of Casualty and Surety Executives, the Inland Marine Underwriters Association, the National Association of Insurance Agents, the National

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Association of Mutual Insurance Agents, the National Board of Fire Underwriters, Insurance Executives Association, National Association of Insurance Brokers, Inc., the National Association of Casualty and Surety Agents, the Surety Association of America, the National Fraternal Congress of America, and the Health and Accident Underwriters Conference. Opportunity is granted to the State legislatures during their present and forthcoming sessions for 1945, 1946, and 1947 to consider the welfare of policyholders.

Enactment of this bill will (1) remove existing doubts as to the right of the States to regulate and tax the business of insurance, and (2) secure more adequate regulation of such business.

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79TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1st Session

JOHN T. COOPER

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REPORT
No. 69

FEBRUARY 9, 1945.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed

Mr. McGEHEE, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the

following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 76]

The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 76) for the relief of John T. Cooper, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

A similar bill was favorably reported by this committee in the Seventy-eighth Congress.

The facts will be found fully set forth in Senate Report No. 2, Seventy-eighth Congress, which is appended hereto and made a part of this report.

Your committee concur in the recommendation of the Senate.

[S. Rept. No. 2, 79th Cong., 1st sess.]

The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 2002) for the relief of John T. Cooper, having considered the same, report favorably thereon and recommended that the bill do pass.

The purpose of the proposed legislation is to authorize and direct the Comptroller General to credit the account of John T. Cooper, postmaster at Hartselle, Ala., in the sum of $179. Such sum represents a shortage in such account caused by the loss of such sum from the money-order cash drawer at such post office during the night of October 24, 1940.

The committee recommend favorable consideration of this bill. The facts are fully set forth in the attached letter from the Office of the Postmaster General.

Hon, ALLEN J. ELLENDER,

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., September 2, 1944.

Chairman, Committee on Claims, United States Senate.

MY DEAR SENATOR ELLENDER: The receipt is acknowledged of your recent request for a report upon S. 2002, a bill for the relief of John T. Cooper.

This case, involving the disappearance of $179 from the lock drawer of a substitute clerk of the Hartselle, Ala., post office, has been the subject of an extensive investigation by several post-office inspectors, and from the reports submitted it has not been possible to place the blame for the actual disappearance of the

money.

The cash was taken from the lock drawer provided for the use of the substitute clerk who, upon leaving the office at the close of business, inserted the drawer in the chest within the vault but failed to lock it, thus making it possible for anyone entering the vault later on that day or before he removed it on the next day to have access to the drawer which contained bond and money-order funds accumulated after the time for the daily deposit. The clerk, therefore, although no evidence was produced to show that he actually took the money, is believed to have been guilty of contributory negligence. He definitely refused to make good the amount.

The inspectors found that John T. Cooper, the postmaster at Hartselle, Ala., was negligent in that he had failed to place in operation a system of safeguarding Government funds that would fix individual responsibility at all times, and for that reason held the postmaster responsible on the ground of inadequate supervision and collected the $179 from him.

As no evidence has been submitted to show that the postmaster in any way benefited from the transaction or was personally implicated in the loss other than failure to provide a system of fixing individual responsibility covering the employees of his office, this Department would interpose no objection to the enactment of this measure.

It has been ascertained from the Bureau of the Budget that this report is in accord with the program of the President.

Very truly yours,

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79TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1st Session

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REPORT
No. 70

SIGURDUR JONSSON AND THOROLINA THORDARDOTTIR

FEBRUARY 9, 1945.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed

Mr. McGEHEE, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 314]

The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 314) for the relief of Sigurdur Jonsson and Thorolina Thordardottir, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with an amendment and recommend that the bill as amended do pass.

The amendment is as follows:

At the end of bill strike out the period and insert:

: Provided, That no part of the amount appropriated in this Act in excess of 10 per centum thereof shall be paid or delivered to or received by any agent or attorney on account of services rendered in connection with this claim, and the same shall be unlawful, any contract to the contrary notwithstanding. Any person violating the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not exceeding $1,000. The facts will be found fully set forth in Senate Report No. 21, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session, which is appended hereto and made a part of this report.

Your committee concur in the recommendation of the Senate.

[8. Rept. No. 21, 79th Cong., 1st sess.]

The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1935) for the relief of Sigurdur Jonsson and Thorolina Thordardottir, having considered the same, report favorably thereon and recommend that the bill do pass.

The purpose of the proposed legislation is to pay to Jon Sigurdsson as attorney in fact for his parents, Sigurdur Jonsson and Thorolina Thordardottir, of Hafnarfjordur, Iceland, for and on their behalf, the sum of $4,070.85, in full settlement of all claims against the United States for the death of their son, Thordur Sigurdsson, who was fatally injured when shot by an enlisted soldier in the Army of the United States on November 8, 1941, at Hafnarfjordur, Iceland.

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