Efforts to move the legislation are being led by risk retention groups, risk managers and the Washington-based Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers in response to dramatic increases in rates for commercial property insurance.

Lee Reno, a partner in the Washington law firm of Reno & Cavanaugh, which runs a risk retention group of public housing authorities, said that the problem is the same that led to the enactment of the Risk Retention Act in the 1980s, when liability insurance rates skyrocketed.

Mr. Reno said it is hard to predict whether Congress will take up the issue this year. Congress already has a fairly large agenda facing it, he said.

There have been tremendous rate increases in property insurance that began even before the terrorist events of Sept. 11, due to a tightening in the insurance market, he said.

Risk retention is a way to greatly reduce those costs, he added.

Mr. Reno noted that things got even worse after Sept. 11, but expanding the Risk Retention Act is not intended as a solution to the problem of terrorism reinsurance, and the supporters of the effort will be careful not to link the issue to terrorism.

"We are just trying to solve the problem of a tight market," he said.

Joel Wood, senior vice president of the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, said the time is certainly right for an expansion of the Risk Retention Act.

The tools exist to manage the program and to spread the risk, he said. Moreover, Mr. Wood said, regulation of risk retention, since the act became law, has been very sound.

Mr. Wood added that when the Risk Retention Act was first enacted in 1981 and expanded in 1986, there were complaints among regulators, some agent groups and some companies that the legislation would undermine state regulation, risk retention groups would go bust, and traditional insurers would be at a competitive disadvantage.

However, he said, none of that came true. Now, Mr. Wood said, there are problems in the property insurance area and there is compelling need for an expansion that is being driven by consumers and risk managers.

The Washington-based Consumer Federation of America has also supported expansion of the Risk Retention Act.

Mr. Reno said he hopes legislation will be introduced within the next couple of weeks.