Peter Roskam will be speaking at the 2008 Big I Legislative Conference and Convention tomorrow. That’s “I” as in Insurance. Big I is a nickname for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, an insurance industry lobby group. They are having their convention in Washington and Roskam will be speaking at a luncheon meeting for young agents and for the InsurPac state chairpersons. InsurPac is IIAB’s political action committee. They gave $5000 in donations to Roskam’s campaign in 2007.On its website, InsurPac describes the reason behind it’s generosity:

“While contributions do not buy solutions to legislative debates, they do allow members of IIABA’s government affairs team significant face-time with elected officials. Through InsurPac, IIABA is allowed the opportunity to educate these members and develop working relationships with them. Lobbying and a well-funded PAC go hand-in-hand.”

One is left to wonder how much “significant face-time” would cost for the residents of Roskam’s district here in Illinois.. I imagine that at these rates, it would be out of reach for most of us.

In all seriousness, there is nothing nefarious about this particular contribution or this particular speech. My impression of Roskam is that he operates with deliberate transparency when it comes to campaign financial matters. He is not a crook.

But I do think that residents of the 6th should consider that Roskam is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the banking, financial services, and insurance industries. As such, Roskam is courted by groups like IIAB and receives lots of PAC contributions from this sector. In fact, this is the largest sector for Roskam by far. Roskam has received over $236,000 in individual and PAC contributions from the Finance/Insurance/Real Estate sector during the current cycle. That’s a lot of face time.

Roskam has time and time again shown himself to vote in favor of corporate interests over those of the residents of his district. One wonders whether it’s the result of all this lobbying activity. One wonders who’s voice he really is on Capitol Hill. This is particularly troubling when one considers the upcoming issues that Congress is going to be dealing with relative to the mortgage crisis and the reevaluation of financial services regulation. Will Roskam be speaking up for us in those deliberations?

Perhaps in the interests of continued transparency, Roskam will post the text of his speech tomorrow on his website. He says he’s our voice in Congress. I for one would like to hear what that voice is telling the insurance industry.