WASHINGTON —The House of Representatives Monday unanimously passed legislation repealing a federal mandate that requires dealers to provide car buyers with a booklet comparing vehicle insurance repair costs upon request.

The bill, which now heads to the Senate for consideration, eliminates a potential $1,000 fine dealers currently face for noncompliance.

“The federal government has spent more than $1 million over the years to distribute largely irrelevant insurance information,” said Bill Underriner, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). “In my years of selling cars, not one customer has ever asked for this information at my dealership…We're looking for other ways to reduce regulatory burdens on dealers.”

The booklet, Relative Collision Insurance Cost Information, has been printed and mailed with taxpayer dollars to all new-car dealerships since 1993. The Department of Transportation has described it as “not useful” and “rarely used.”

Currently, dealers are required to reproduce it at their expense. According to a recent NADA survey, 96 percent of dealers reported that none of their customers had ever asked to see it.

The bipartisan bill, H.R. 5859, introduced by Reps. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) and Bill Owens (D-N.Y.), is strongly supported by the NADA. Underriner applauded the action by the House and commended Reps. Harper and Owens for their leadership, and said, “This is one fewer mandate and potential fine that dealerships will have to face.”