Rep. Craig Eiland represents Galveston Island and serves as speaker pro tem in the Texas House of Representatives, the second-most powerful position in the House.

Elected in 1994 to serve in the 74th legislature, Eiland began his public service representing the citizens of Galveston County and now includes Chambers County. For eight years he served on the Insurance and Appropriations committees, including four years as Vice Chair of the Insurance Committee.

Currently, Eiland is the Vice Chair of the Juvenile Justice and Family Issues Committee and serves on the Insurance Committee. He is viewed by his colleagues as an expert on insurance matters and the state budget in general and the Medicaid and CHIP program budgets specifically. Eiland has had a major hand in crafting 8 straight years of balanced budgets while appropriating a total of $416,470,722,944.00. He has also served as the Chair of the Committee on Pensions and Investments, helping to craft legislation that will make our public retirement systems secure, while giving the beneficiaries increased benefits.

Eiland is the past President of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) where he has also served as Chairman of the Property and Casualty Committee, Chairman of the State/Federal Relations Committee, and is currently the Chair of the International Issues Committee.

Eiland is a tireless advocate for all Texas homeowners and workers. He is committed to serving the best interests of Texas families through stronger accountability measures, safer workplaces, and real insurance reforms.

Rep. Eiland has filed premier pieces of legislation to benefit Texas families, policyholders, and consumers:

• Insurance Reform – Eiland passed key insurance legislation that allows Texans to use their policies without fear of being penalized by their insurance company.
• Insurance Arbitration – Eiland sponsored legislation to ban the use of binding mandatory arbitration in insurance policies.

Also on Eiland’s agenda this session is legislation to require insurance companies to pay into a state catastrophe fund in case of big losses in a hurricane or other natural disaster. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association – the last resort insurer for some coastal counties – also would pay into the reinsurance fund.

Eiland, sponsor of House bill 2487, said property insurance companies would save money by not having to buy and renew reinsurance year after year from private companies based mostly in Europe or Bermuda and not regulated by the state. The savings would be passed along to consumers.