Industry lobbyists and congressional staff said the leadership of the Senate Banking Committee was working to have the full Senate take up the bill by tomorrow afternoon.

The House, with a fuller plate of must-do legislation to digest before it departs for a two-week Thanksgiving recess, is seen as unlikely to pass its version of the bill before Saturday.

Charles E. Symington Jr., senior vice president for government affairs and federal relations at the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, said because the bills are different, action on a consensus bill is likely to take place the week of Dec. 5, when Congress returns from its recess.

It is clear that the White House will push for the Senate version of the bill. In a statement after the Senate vote, Treasury Secretary John Snow said, "I'm pleased to see that actions today in the Senate to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act recognize the temporary nature of the program and place terrorism insurance on the right path to full private market participation."

He added that, "As Congress proceeds on legislation to extend TRIA, we will continue to work with both the House and Senate to ensure the program entails greater participation of the private market and less risk for taxpayers."

Late Tuesday, after the House bill introduced by Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., chairman of the Capital Markets Subcommittee of the Financial Services panel, became public, Brookly McLaughlin, a Treasury spokesperson, voiced concerns about some provisions of the House version, noting that parts of the legislation would expand the program and increase taxpayers' risk.

"As introduced, the bill increases lines of coverage, increases complexity and puts taxpayers at risk in certain cases sooner than under the current version," Ms. McLaughlin said. "We've been very clear that any extension must result in private market participants taking on a larger role in providing terrorism coverage and the risk to taxpayers being decreased."

In general, both bills call for a two-year extension of the program and raise the current $5 million insurer loss "trigger" for federal payments to $50 million in the first year and $100 million in the second year.

The Senate mandates that the program end after the two-year extension; the House bill provides language for the bill to continue, albeit with higher threshold levels.

The House bill also adds group life insurance to the listed coverages; the Senate bill, following the White House policy, does not.

The House bill provides different coverages for different lines of business based on the likelihood that insurers can persuade reinsurers in the private sector to accept some of the risk.

The House bill suggests creation of a tax-advantaged pooling mechanism to help reduce the risk smaller insurers have of being wiped out by a single event. The pool concept has been advanced as a means of transitioning the program to the private market.

The Senate Banking Committee reported out a modest version of the current legislation by a unanimous voice this morning. The House Financial Services Committee approved its more expansive and innovative version of extension legislation later this afternoon by a vote of 64-3.