WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House of Representatives will revise the estate tax -- or inheritance tax -- before it expires at the end of 2009, the chamber's No. 2 Democrat said on Tuesday.

"I expect it to come forward this year, whether it comes in the next two weeks or the next six weeks, I expect the estate tax to move in the House of Representatives," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said at a news conference.

The estate tax, which taxes the transfer of assets from a deceased person to others, will disappear for one year at the end of 2009 without congressional action.

The current policy exempts the first $3.5 million in an individual's estate, with a maximum tax of 45 percent on property after that.

After 2010, the tax reverts to pre-2001 levels exempting $1 million in property, with a maximum rate of 55 percent above that.