"The agreement paves the way for prompt House floor action," Ms. Peterson said. "Rep. Oxley is excited about the prospect of prompt action, and is confident the Congress will extend TRIA before it expires Dec. 31."

"Obviously, getting House floor action is a big step forward," Ms. Peterson added.

A strong House vote in favor of the bill would set the stage for a reconciliation process with a more bare-bones Senate bill before Congress adjourns for the year. The target date for adjournment is Dec. 17.

The decision to clear the bill for floor action comes as pressure on Congress from the business community continues to grow.

Today the Financial Services Roundtable, a group made up of insurance, banking and investment company executives sent a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. urging passage of the measure.

Over the weekend the TRIA subgroup of the American Academy of Actuaries issued a statement concluding that the "magnitude of potential insurance claims due to terrorist events makes permanent federal legislation necessary in order to make terrorism coverage widely and readily available."

The subgroup based its conclusion on its analysis of the potential impact of terrorist attacks and "how an insurer may react to a sudden change in its perceived exposure to catastrophes."

In a note to clients, Terry Haines, a lobbyist with the Alexander Strategy Group, said that "Judiciary is waiving jurisdiction and [Rep.] Oxley will move a clean bill (without litigation provisions) to the floor this week. Suspension calendar is their hope and expectation."

It was anticipated that had the bill been given over to the Judiciary Committee for further review, tort reforms limiting liability in cases of terrorism might have been added. Such provisions would have likely killed the bill because Democrats, especially in the Senate, would have opposed any such liability limits.

Steve Adamske, a spokesman for Rep. Barney Frank, R-Mass., ranking minority member of the House Financial Services Committee, said Rep. Frank had not seen the wording of the final agreement yet, but "we want to move this along as fast as we can and get this reauthorized as soon as possible."

Industry lobbyists also confirmed that the logjam had been broken for House action this week.

Charles Symington, senior vice president for federal legislative affairs at the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, said "the IIABA is very appreciative of the work that is being done by Chairman Oxley and Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., [chairman of the Capital Markets Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee] in moving this bill to the House floor as soon as possible. We would also like to thank Chairman Sensenbrenner of the Judiciary Committee for working with Chairman Oxley to make that happen.

"We are hopeful that the House Republican leadership will take the Financial Services bill up this week and then look forward to a speedy conference to work the differences between the House and Senate bills."

Julie Rochman, senior vice president for public affairs at the American Insurance Association, said: "We understand that there are efforts amongst members at the highest level of the House to bring TRIA to the floor as soon as possible. We hope that the House and the Senate will work out remaining differences so that a bill can get to President Bush's desk in the next couple of weeks."

David Winston, senior vice president-federal affairs for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, added that "NAMIC greatly appreciates the agreement reached today by Chairmen Oxley and Sensenbrenner on TRIA paving the way for its passage on the House floor this week. It is absolutely essential to have a meaningful federal reinsurance backstop in place when TRIA because scheduled to expire at the end of this year."

House passage of the bill reported out by the House Financial Services Committee is important to the industry because:

o The House bill covers more lines of business than the bare-bones Senate bill.

o It puts the government on the hook to come up with more money based on the ability of the industry to get reinsurance.

o It provides more protection to smaller insurers against insolvency in the case of a large event.

The House bill also establishes a roadmap for ongoing government involvement in terrorism risk insurance, whereas the Senate bill ends federal involvement when the bill sunsets on Dec. 31, 2007.

The House bill also adds coverage, for group life insurance, which was not covered in the original bill, passed in November 2002. Under the bill, life insurers would have to retain the first 21.5 percent of loss on group life policies in 2006 and 24 percent in 2007.