"I'm hopeful that Congress will make this their first priority when they return from recess," Mr. Roth said. With this lame duck session of Congress concluded, the new Congress will not convene until sometime in early January.

"We don't view this as a small, little bill," he said. "This is obviously going to freeze the entire real estate market?in addition to causing serious problems for homeowners and agents."

Earlier, he had estimated that if the House did not pass the resolution extending the program, "over 130,000 mortgages wouldn't close due to this, just in the seven days alone [in January until Congress reconvenes and has a chance to pass an extension]. And God forbid there should be any floods for the seven days."

Mr. Roth explained that the Senate yesterday passed a bill, S-13, which would authorize the program to be extended for one more year. However, the House did not follow through in passing the same legislation.

As well as the real estate industry, he said failure to pass the continuing resolution by the House would affect independent agents who market the flood program to consumers.

The NFIP, he said, is "already starting to work on what they have to do now that it looks like this is reality."

The insurance industry, real estate groups and the Federal Emergency Management Agency all "frantically" tried to "avoid chaos" by attempting to get the resolution passed by the end of today, he said.

Mr. Roth said leaders of the House had promised members that they would not be asked to vote on any unanimous consent legislation, and that making an exception for this bill would have opened the door for other bills.