Insurer Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. spent $450,000 in the first quarter to lobby the federal government on insurance regulation reform, consumer protection rights and other issues, according to a recent disclosure report.
That's down from the $490,000 the Hartford, Conn.-based life insurer spent in the year-ago period during the height of the financial crisis, and the $520,000 it spent in the 2009 fourth quarter.
Last year, the government gave six life insurers, including Hartford Financial, approval to tap its $700 billion bailout program. The company received $3.4 billion in funds in late June 2009. It paid back the government in March.
The Obama administration has proposed a series of measures to tighten the reins on financial institutions in hopes of preventing a recurrence of the crisis that struck both Wall Street and Washington in the fall of 2008.
Hartford Financial also lobbied on issues including the National Insurance Consumer Protection Act, flood insurance, workers' compensation, national catastrophe planning and reform, drywall safety, health care reform, retirement securities, taxes and financial regulatory reform.
In the January-March period, the company lobbied only Congress, according to the report filed April 19 with the House clerk's office.