US President George W. Bush's plan of providing $1.6 trillion in tax cuts is set to move a step closer to reality today, with the House of Representatives expected to pass the plan on a mostly partisan vote.
But Bush's budget faces a tougher test next week in the evenly divided Senate. After struggling to round up votes, several top republicans said this week they were confident the plan would pass, probably after lawmakers extracted more money for their priorities such as agriculture, defence and education.
With a small but fairly unified majority in the House, Republicans were expected to beat back democratic efforts to shrink tax cuts to make room for more payment of the national debt and to shore up domestic programs.
House republicans earlier this month pushed through nearly $1 trillion worth of income tax cuts over 10 years, the centerpiece of Mr Bush's tax cuts that would fit into the budget framework lawmakers are to vote on later in the day. They currently are working on other parts of the tax cut package.