That means that under the current system, Ms. Dorgan said, Congress has no way of enforcing any standards it seeks to impose on insurance companies as part of the financial services system because there is no enforcement mechanism.

Specifically, Ms. Dorgan said, that deals with such issues as data security. Another issue that is of apparent growing interest to Congress deals with life insurance underwriting standards.

One proposed measure in Congress of increasing concern to the insurance industry is a bill sponsored by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., H.R. 3639, which would bar an insurer from denying life insurance or establishing higher rates based on "the intent of such person to engage in future lawful foreign travel."

In comments during a panel discussion at the meeting on Sunday, Jim Poolman, North Dakota insurance commissioner, voiced concern that such legislation is gaining support in Congress.

Mr. Poolman said the National Association of Insurance Commissioners had established a group to look into the issue.

The bill was introduced by Ms. Wasserman Schultz in late July and is now under consideration in the House Financial Services Committee. It would establish federal enforcement standards if an insurer denied coverage based on disclosure by an applicant for insurance of future foreign travel plans.

In his comments, Mr. Keating said that it is likely that legislation calling for an OFC will be introduced in the Senate "by the end of the year."

Sens. John Sununu, R-N.H., and Tim Johnson, D-S.D. "have expressed interest" in introducing such a bill, Ms. Dorgan explained later. It was learned later the Senate measure would apply to both life and property-casualty insurers.

In the House, Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., both members of the House Financial Services Committee, are likely to introduce the bill, Ms. Dorgan said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Keating commented that Congress' proposed insurance regulatory reform measure, the State Modernization and Regulatory Transparency Act (SMART), is "on the rocks" and the bill "does nothing for us…"

The SMART legislation is being drafted by the majority staff of the House Financial Services Committee and its provisions would establish standards for state regulators to attain in establishing rules and laws for the insurance industry.

Ms. Dorgan explained later that Mr. Keating said the bill "does nothing for us" because the Republican leadership of the House panel appears to be moving toward focusing on property-casualty issues in SMART, whose introduction has been continually delayed since a draft was leaked in July 2004.

"It is clear to us that the life section is not something that Rep. Mike Oxley, R-Ohio, chairman of the committee, is focused on at this time," Ms. Dorgan explained later.

But, Ms. Dorgan said, uniform producer licensing standards, of major interest to ACLI members, continue to be a major focus of the drafters of SMART.

In general, however, Ms. Dorgan said, congressional interest in an OFC for life stems from the fact that "there is a growing realization that the marketplace has changed dramatically since the McCarran-Ferguson Act was passed in 1945."