The Senate has moved to strengthen its bargaining position with the House in the standoff over a tax package to accompany a minimum wage increase.

A newly enlarged package of business tax breaks, along with the minimum wage increase to $7.25 over two years, was added by voice vote to the war spending bill (HR 1591) on the Senate floor late Tuesday.

The Senate added $3.9 billion in tax breaks and offsetting revenue-raisers to the $8.3 billion package that it earlier included in a minimum wage bill (HR 2).

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has said he hopes that bolstering the Senate tax proposal will increase his leverage for negotiating a larger package in conference. The House-passed version of the spending bill includes at least $1.3 billion in small-business tax breaks along with the minimum wage increase.

“When you negotiate, you usually settle pretty much in the middle,” Baucus said recently.

House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., has said he wants to keep the final tax package close to the House-passed level.