INSURERS PUSHED ON HOLOCAUST BILL WOULD OPEN DATA ON VICTIMS' POLICIES.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - If California can't force insurance companies to turn over the names of their Holocaust-era policyholders, maybe Congress can.

That's what Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, will be aiming for Tuesday when the House Government Reform Committee convenes a hearing into the efforts of elderly Holocaust survivors to collect on billions of dollars worth of long-dormant policies.

``Congress is the only avenue left to deal with this matter,'' Waxman said.

Waxman, the leading Democrat on the committee, is pushing legislation that would establish a national Holocaust insurance registry open to the public.

Under the bill, insurance companies would be forced - with the threat of hefty fines - to turn over the names, birth dates and hometowns of all World War II-era policyholders. The proposed federal registry is based on one that California tried to create but that the U.S. Supreme Court blocked after insurance companies sued.

In a 5-4 decision in June, the court struck a state law - as unconstitutional meddling in foreign affairs - that would have required companies to turn over information on their European policies from about 1920 to 1945 or risk losing their license to do business in California.

The court decision keenly disappointed elderly Holocaust survivors, said Mitch Kamin, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Bet Tzedek legal services clinic. ``Our hope had been, after almost four decades, people would get honest information. Our clients, who are all elderly, obviously don't have a lot of time to wait.''

Under Waxman's bill, companies would have to open up their archives within 90 days after the proposed federal law took effect or face $5,000-a-day fines. The bill also gives states broad rights to require insurance companies to disclose policy information.

``The court ruled the states couldn't act but ... certainly didn't discourage action on a national level,'' Waxman said. States were stripped of leverage by the court ruling, he said. ``Now we have to use the U.S. leverage.''

Officials in the American Insurance Association, which successfully fought California's law, did not return a phone call seeking comment on Waxman's proposal.

The legislation is supported by Reps. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys; Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks; Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach; Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Long Beach; Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena; Hilda Solis, D-El Monte; and Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles.

Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., has introduced similar legislation, which also will be considered at Tuesday's hearing.

Foley's bill, which focuses on letting states set their own requirements for insurers, is supported by Reps. Schiff and Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks.

Holocaust survivors, their families and their backers have long argued that firms have a moral obligation to release the thousands of names, stored in files throughout Europe, so that the survivors and their families can collect on long-forgotten life and property policies.

The actual number of outstanding claims is unknown, but some industry analysts have put the total potential liability for insurance companies as high as $4 billion.

Many survivors were children at the outbreak of World War II and don't know if or with what company their parents held polices. They are dependent upon the companies - which, critics say, usually have records showing precisely who held policies with their firms and when - to be forthcoming.

An international commission was created in 1988 to help survivors locate policy information and resolve claims. Critics, however, accuse the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims of having inadequate oversight and dragging its feet. Insurance companies are not required to turn over information to the commission, but rather are asked to do so voluntarily.

Recently, the commission chairman, Lawrence Eagleburger, announced that 120,000 names will be added to the commission Web site that currently can be searched for one or more of 450,000 names of those insured under unpaid policies.

The commission does not release the lists of names, but rather agrees to check them if any claim is submitted.

Critics contend that insurance companies are stonewalling the commission and, by extension, thousands of elderly Holocaust survivors. The commission recently extended its deadline for filing claims to Dec. 31, which Kamin and other critics contend is still not enough time.

The Government Reform Committee on Tuesday also will expect to hear from Ambassador Randolph Bell, the U.S. State Department's special envoy for Holocaust issues.

The Bush administration in the past has not been supportive of Waxman's bill, preferring to work diplomatically in encouraging other countries to release names.

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com