The House drew the nation back from the fiscal cliff Tuesdaynight when it voted to approve compromise legislation that, amongstother provisions, makes the current estate-tax policy permanent,albeit with one minor change.

The House approved the measure by a final vote of 257-167. MoreDemocrats, 172, voted for it, than Republicans, 85. SixteenDemocrats voted "no," while 11 members of the House did notvote.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill shortly. He spoketo the nation shortly after the House completed the vote.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and other Republicansconsidered alternatives to supporting the plan for many hoursbefore deciding to allow Democrats to carry the day in a rare casewhere the majority party did not provide the votes needed to passlegislation.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the 2012 GOPvice presidential candidate, voted for the fiscal-cliff deal, asdid Boehner. The No. 2 ranking Republican in the House, MajorityLeader Eric Cantor, and third-ranking Republican in the House, GOPWhip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., both voted against it.

The legislation passed the Senate early Tuesday. But HouseRepublicans worked all day to determine if they could devise a wayto force the Senate to reconsider the measure so it would includemore spending cuts.

The House voted to accept the Senate bill only after realizingthat its hands were tied by the huge, 89-8, bipartisan support inthe Senate for the package.

The fiscal cliff legislation will raise income taxes on singleearners with annual incomes above $400,000 and married couples withincomes above $450,000.

It will also block spending cuts for two months, extendunemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, prevent a 27percent cut in fees for doctors who treat Medicare patients andprevent a spike in milk prices.

The bill also contains a win for insurance agents, preservingcurrent estate-tax law policies that provide for a $5,120,000million per-person exemption.

Estate-tax policy has been in flux since 2001, when the Bush taxcuts were enacted. They called for higher levels of exemptions andlower tax rates to be phased in over 10 years, with the estate taxtotally eliminated in 2010.

However, the legislation decoupled the estate and gift taxes,and created other changes in tax law that made the work of theinsurance industry in helping people reduce their estate-taxliability more difficult.

It also expired for the 2011 tax year, during which estate-taxpolicy was set to revert to 2001 levels of a $1 million exemptionand a 55 percent maximum tax rate.

The new agreement restores certainty to current policy, which isstrongly supported by insurance agents because it allows most topass on their business to their heirs without a high cost. Underthe bill as passed, agents with businesses valued at more than $10million will be able to easily purchase insurance that will allowtheir heirs to inherit the business without major cost.

The fiscal-cliff bill passed by the House also extends majorportions of the current farm bill for nine months.

However, the farm provision provides no disaster assistance,something farmers had sought after suffering through the worstdrought in 50 years in 2012.

That will likely put added pressure on crop insurance, aseparate aid program partially subsidized by the government. Morethan 18,000 insurance agents sell this product.