And, some industry groups, including the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, want the proposed legislation improved in several areas.

A hearing on the bill and several others dealing with catastrophe-related issues was held yesterday, and drafting modification work on the legislation was originally scheduled for today.

But, insurance industry lobbyists said the new plan is to take up the NFIP reauthorization bill as well as two other pieces of legislation next Tuesday.

The Flood Insurance Reform and Priorities Act of 2010 would reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program for five years and allow its rates to rise up to 20 percent a year (the current limit is 10 percent).

It would also increase its coverage limits, phase in actuarial rates for several categories of properties, and weaken mandatory purchase requirements. Another provision would create a "consumer advocate" for NFIP.

The NFIP bill is likely to win strong support in the House. The committee is also slated to act on two other catastrophe-related bills.

They are the Homeowners Defense Act of 2009, H.R. 2555, and the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2009, legislation sponsored by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss. The Multiple Peril bill would add wind coverage to the NFIP program.

While the Taylor bill may win support in the committee and in the full House, enactment is less likely because of industry opposition to adding wind to the program.

The other bill, the Homeowners Defense Act, is also unlikely to win enactment because of its potential cost and because the insurance industry is divided on the measure.

Critics of the bill, which passed Congress in a different form during 2007, call it a "beach house bailout."

Eli Lehrer, an outside consultant on catastrophe issues and national director of the Center on Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate, Washington, D.C., said critics believe the bill distorts the private market, encourages environmentally damaging construction, and places a significant liability on taxpayers in the event of a major storm.

Those who favor it, on the other hand, say it will make property insurance more affordable and cost nothing for the Treasury, Mr. Lehrer said.

At the same time, the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents voiced support for the bill reauthorizing the NFIP.

"PIA is very encouraged that Congress is finally acting on this," said Mike Becker, PIA national director of federal affairs.

"The need to enact comprehensive reform to the flood insurance program is well known," he said.

Mr. Lehrer said the NFIP reauthorization bill mixes good and bad ideas and it surely isn't the wholesale reform that NFIP needs. "But, since it increases rates and charges full actuarial rates to a larger number of properties, I see more good than bad in what Rep. Waters is proposing," he said.

The NFIP should be reauthorized for a shorter time and more reforms should be made now, Mr. Lehrer suggested.

"While there's no point in continually reauthorizing the program every few months, a shorter reauthorization period of two or three years would keep on the pressure for the sweeping reform the program needs," Mr. Lehrer said.

"Among other things, actuarial rates and the attendant regulations have to be phased in on a much broader scale than Rep. Waters currently envisions doing," he added.

In a statement, the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America said it supports increasing maximum coverage limits unchanged since 1994 and it also wants optional business interruption insurance and additional living expenses covered by NFIP. It said this would provide essential coverage to consumers, bring the program additional revenue, and make the program more attractive to consumers.