WASHINGTON—The House of Representatives has given its approval to a bill that would streamline insurance producer licensing, a reform that proponents of the bill say will make buyers' lives easier.

The National Assn. of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act of 2008 would amend the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to re-establish the National Assn. of Registered Agents and Brokers as a nonprofit corporation whose purpose is to provide a mechanism through which licensing, continuing education and other insurance producer qualification requirements and conditions can be adopted and applied on a multistate basis. States would still license, supervise and discipline producers as well as enforce insurance-related consumer protection laws.

Producer groups hailed passage of the bill.

"NARAB II would force the states to adopt uniform laws for producer licensure, and in the absence of such adoption would create a clearinghouse for national licensure," said Joel Wood, senior vp of the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers in Washington.

"Clients ultimately pick up the tab for all of the inefficiencies of state-by-state licensing, and licensure requirements too often have nothing to do with standards of professionalism," he said. "No risk manager would ever look to his or her broker's license as an assurance of quality service. This is a national business, and this would provide a national standard, so we greatly appreciate the House action."

"The NARAB Reform Act will make independent agents more efficient by eliminating costly and redundant paperwork for multistate agent licenses," Robert Rusbuldt, president and chief executive officer of the Alexandria, Va.-based Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, said in a statement released after Wednesday's vote. "By streamlining the licensing process, agents will have more time to focus on what's most important: serving consumers."

Enactment of producer licensing reform legislation is unlikely this year, though, as the Senate has not taken up the issue.

Meanwhile, the House delayed action yet again on the Insurance Information Act, which would create a new Office of Insurance Information in the Treasury Department to provide federal officials with insurance expertise and data, after a California congresswoman raised questions about such an office's impact on state consumer protection laws.

A vote on the bipartisan measure, which enjoys widespread support within the insurance industry as well as the administration, is now expected next week.