The SMART measure, a product of Rep. Mike Oxley, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is expected to be introduced this year in the House. The rival optional federal charter bill was recently introduced in the Senate by Sens. John Sununu, R-N.H., and Tim Johnson, D-S.D.

Sen. Pryor said he believes the Commerce and Banking Committees will try to work the issue out jointly. “You will probably see the Banking and Commerce Committees working together” on the bill, with members of the Commerce Committee “generally interested” in the issue, “but nothing likely to occur this year.”

Sen. Pryor's comments to the agents are important, because he is a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has joint jurisdiction over insurance with the Banking Committee. The Senate Judiciary Committee could also assert jurisdiction, delaying even more any change in regulation of insurance.

Sen. Pryor was unavailable for comment after his remarks, but it appeared unlikely he would advise a public meeting with an important sector of his constituency–and that the committees would attempt to work on the issue jointly–without sounding out fellow Commerce Committee members.

Insurance modernization also came up as a topic for discussion at the meeting because a rival agents group–Agents for Change–posted an advertisement today in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, which was highly critical of the IIABA's support of the SMART bill.

“Members of Congress: Don't believe the hype: insurance agents and brokers support an optional federal charter,” the ad said.

“We could not agree more with the Big 'I' about the problem. The difference is that we support legislation that addresses these concerns, the National Insurance Act of 2006, S. 2509.

“Insurance agents and brokers want the option of being regulated at either the federal or the state level,” the ad continued. “What could be healthier for the marketplace than a system that encourages competition?”

Thomas Minkler, of Keane, N.H., chairman of the IIABA Government Affairs Committee, said the ad constituted an “unusual tactic.” He said that as the IIABA members head to Capitol Hill to lobby their agenda, “this shows you are in the driver's seat, the players on a national stage.”

He also said Agents for Change is tiny compared to the IIABA's membership, with 500 mostly life agents as members. The group is being financed by the Financial Services Roundtable, and to a certain extent, by the American Council of Life Insurers, an unabashed advocate of the OFC legislation.