

Very simple.  An 'Insurance Commissioner' is a bureaucrat - a regulator.
It is his/her duties to make rules to enforce laws.  He/she cannot
make laws.  If there is no law that covers a specific subject, say
scam insurance companies, a regulator cannot create one.  So they have
to go to a proper legislative body to get such a law enacted.  For
the California Insurance Commissioner, there are two possible legislative
bodies:  the California State Legislature and the U.S. Congress.  We all
know how little the California State Legislature accomplishes, esp. 
along the lines of insurance reform legislation (negative movement).  So
Garamendi wants the feds to do it, because: (a) he has a better chance
of getting a federal law through, and (b) since many of the scam
companies work across state lines/national borders, it is better to
have a law that reach out into other jurisdictions.