Washington, D.C. ? The Senate voted Friday to extend for seven years a post-Sept. 11 law guaranteeing federal help for the insurance industry in the event of a catastrophic terrorist attack.

The Senate measure, approved by voice vote, differs considerably from a House version passed in September, and the two chambers have until the end of the year, when the current Terrorism Risk Insurance Act expires, to work out their differences.

The program, known as TRIA, was created in 2002 after the private insurance market for developers collapsed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “Without this program, terrorism insurance will become unavailable or prohibitively expensive, construction projects would grind to a halt and Americans would lose jobs,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.