By John Gramlich and Carolyn Phenicie, CQ Staff

House Republican leaders will allow a vote next week on a Senate-passed proposal to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts on income of up to $250,000 despite their dim view of the measure as a tax increase on small businesses.

“We’ll give the Democrats an opportunity to vote for the president’s small- business tax hikes, and if they do, I think the American people will hold them accountable,” Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, said during his weekly news conference Thursday.

Boehner’s announcement ensured the parties’ election year positioning over taxes, which has consumed much of the current week, will stretch into the final legislative week before lawmakers leave for their monthlong August recess.

The Senate-passed bill (S 3412) would extend tax cuts, set to expire at year’s end, on incomes up to $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. The Senate passed the measure 51-48 on July 25, with Democrats unifying behind the bill and casting it as tax relief for the vast majority of Americans.

Republicans, however, favor a broader extension of the George W. Bush administration tax cuts (PL 107-16, PL 108-27), one that would include income above $250,000 as well as income below that threshold.

A Senate Republican plan (S 3413) to take that step was rejected 45-54 on July 25, but House leaders will bring their own effort (HR 8) to the floor next week, Majority Leader Eric Cantor said on the House floor Thursday.

Promising a “robust debate,” Cantor, R-Va., said the vote would occur after the House returns July 31 and Democrats would be allowed to offer their bill as a substitute amendment to the GOP’s plan.

Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., said Democrats would offer their proposal “as passed by the Senate.”

President Obama also praised the Senate-passed bill and amplified the pressure on Republicans not to block its consideration.

“With the Senate’s vote, the House Republicans are now the only people left in Washington holding hostage the middle-class tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans and nearly every small-business owner,” Obama said in a July 25 written statement.

Rules Approves Process

Meanwhile, a bill that would establish an expedited timeline for congressional consideration of a GOP plan to overhaul the tax code won approval from the Rules Committee Thursday.

The measure (HR 6169), which the committee advanced 6-2, would apply only to a bill introduced by the House Ways and Means chairman before April 30, 2013. That overhaul measure would have to incorporate several specific changes to the tax code, including a 25 percent cap on the corporate tax rate, repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax and consolidation of the individual tax rate into two brackets of no more than 10 percent and 25 percent.