That followed a briefing with banking regulators, trade group officials and some companies with members of the House panel Wednesday morning, and with the Senate Banking Committee later in the day.

The Wednesday briefing in the House--it is unclear if it will be an open meeting--will focus on the short-term needs of the industry in light of the huge potential cost of what is clearly the greatest natural disaster ever in the U.S., one lobbyist said, as well as the likely immediate impact on the insurance marketplace.

Senate plans for a hearing were not clear at press time, although a spokesman for Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said Mr. Shelby is considering all options appropriate to Senate response to the hurricane and its aftermath.

Meanwhile, action on a scaled-down extension of TRIA could likely be delayed until October, one industry lobbyist said. The majority staff of the committee had earlier promised the industry that the bill would be introduced and acted on by mid-September.

The delay may be a relief, because the proposed scaled-back draft bill for extending TRIA that was shown to industry lobbyists had sparked talk of outright opposition by some companies and trade groups. They are complaining privately that the proposed bill, while winning support from the White House and conservatives in Congress, imposes too great a potential burden on them to be acceptable.