The business of Congress and the business of the insurance industry are as entangled as they've ever been. But the goals of Capitol Hill and of the industry are usually very different.

In the new era of Democratic dominance in the capital, an ambitious agenda has been handed to this 111th Congress: First, fix the U.S. health care system. Also, establish a new structure of financial regulations and oversight for the country. Both movements have massive and long-lasting implications for those in the insurance business.

The true battleground has been and will be in the congressional committees. That's where most bills go to die. But a committee can also give a sufficient enough push to a piece of legislation that it doesn't stop until it lands in the Oval Office. These are the panels that exert the greatest weight in insurance matters:

HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES

Chairman: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

Ranking Member: Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala.

Business of the Session: A central committee for insurance matters in the House, the panel is particularly busy this year dealing with most of the major legislation promising to make waves with insurers. In the ongoing financial-system reform effort, it's considering bills to create both a federal office of insurance information and a consumer financial protection agency. The committee is also reviewing legislation that would reverse the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's decision to regulate indexed annuities and a bill to form a national catastrophe fund. The hearings calendar has been packed tight -- sometimes with several hearings a week -- examining the details of what went wrong in the U.S. economy, including with American International Group Inc. Flood insurance is another key issue insurers are looking at in the committee.

Action: The committee already passed the economic stimulus and was among the easiest votes for the health care reform bill.

HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS

Chairman: Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

Ranking Member: Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich.

Business of the Session: The powerful Ways and Means Committee is the panel with jurisdiction over taxes, Social Security, Medicare and some trade issues. If a bill calls for any taxation, it must pass through this group. In the 111th Congress, that means the committee has been a key stop for health care reform, and any further economic stimulus talk would have to pass through its doors. Rangel has recently struggled with scandal involving accusations of tax evasion and unreported rental income, and many critics called for him to step down as chairman.

Action: Having been monopolized earlier in the session by the economic stimulus, it then concentrated on passing the initial version of the health reform bill. Its hearing calendar has regularly been occupied by health-insurance issues, but it also deals with corporate taxes. Rangel mentioned early in the year that he'd favor reductions in such taxes "to help make our companies more competitive internationally."

HOUSE JUDICIARY

Chairman: Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich.

Ranking Member: Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas

Business of the Session: In overseeing the U.S. courts and legal system, the Judiciary Committee is watched closely by the industry because of its consideration of how lawsuits can be filed under such major bills as the health care and climate change reforms. There are a number of legal reforms under review, affecting such issues as the expansion of mass torts and whether aftermarket automobile parts makers can avoid patent disputes so their less expensive parts can be used in auto repair. The committee is also reviewing the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act -- an effort toward regulatory standardization -- and H.R. 1583, a bill to repeal a portion of the McCarran-Ferguson Act.

Action: The committee has spent much of its time this year examining rules for mortgage issues, patents and credit cards and also investigating wrongdoing among fellow politicians.

HOUSE ENERGY and COMMERCE

Chairman: Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Ranking Member: Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas

Business of the Session: A committee with broad jurisdiction, its reach within commerce and trade intersects the insurance industry. It's currently dealing with several insurance-related bills, though most are without co-sponsors. The committee is another stop for H.R. 1583, regarding insurer competition, and the group is assigned to review H.R. 3126, a stand-alone bill that would form the consumer financial protection agency -- a component of the Obama administration's proposed financial reforms. But its major business in the first months of the session was health reform.

Action: This is where health reform hit major resistance, when the fiscally conservative Democrats on the committee, known as the "Blue Dog Coalition," demanded cost reductions in the bill.

SENATE BANKING, HOUSING and URBAN AFFAIRS

Chairman: Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

Ranking Member: Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.

Business of the Session: The banking committee is saddled with direct jurisdiction over regulating the insurance industry, though in this session, every movement in the committee has something to do with the bigger picture of reforming the overall financial system. In some areas, such as the formation of an Office of National Insurance at the Department of the Treasury, that means a direct impact on the industry. In others, such as the consumer financial protection agency, it's only a secondary effect. This committee is the Senate home to bills -- companions of those in the House -- that would reverse SEC regulation of indexed annuities and standardize regulation of nonadmitted insurance and reinsurance. The panel will also deal with long-term care issues.

Action: Because Dodd has been running the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for the ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., his time has been absorbed in the health care reform debate. But he'll be called to return when financial reform -- high on the list of the Obama administration's major priorities -- is dealt with here.

SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE

Chairman: Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Ranking Member: Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa

Business of the Session: Like Ways and Means in the House, the Finance Committee is concerned with taxes. It became the most-watched committee in the Senate during the health care reform debate, because its chairman committed to trying to come up with a bipartisan bill to reform the U.S. health system.

Action: The members' health reform debate marked the specific congressional negotiation that delayed a vote on the bill beyond Obama's intended end-of-July deadline. Also this year, the panel worked on children's health insurance at the start of the session and spent much of its time on economic-recovery legislation. It also held a recent hearing to examine revenue collection and distribution in a cap-and-trade system for pollution emissions.

SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION, PENSIONS and LABOR

Chairman: Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

Ranking Member: Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.

Business of the Session: In the absence of its famous chairman to illness, Dodd, has filled in as acting chairman during one of the committee's busiest times in recent memory. Committee work has been dominated by health care, though its labor and pensions jurisdiction regularly stray into the insurance world. The insurance industry also follows whatever the committee does in the area of federal involvement with workers compensation.

Action: The HELP committee became the first of the five pertinent congressional committees to pass the health care reform bill. In February and March, the committee held hearings on reforming the health-insurance market and on the problems of the underinsured.

SENATE JUDICIARY

Chairman: Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Ranking Member: Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

Business of the Session: The Judiciary Committee deals regularly with antitrust law and intellectual property rights, and the committee also has some oversight over the nature of lawsuits. The most prominent work of the committee in this session has been consideration of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court bench -- which does have a potential insurance-industry effect when she rules on insurance matters. The panel is also considering S.1368, a bill that would protect aftermarket auto parts makers from some patent-infringement claims ? a bill the property/casualty industry favors because of its use of such parts to make crash repairs less expensive.

Action: In April, the committee passed the Patent Reform Act of 2009, a wide effort to revise U.S. patent law. In May, the committee held a hearing to examine criminal prosecution as a deterrent to health care fraud.