WASHINGTON — The Senate is poised to vote this week on its own plan for an economic stimulus package, which would extend tax rebates to virtually all American families, including those on the upper end of the income scale.

The proposal, crafted by the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, would remove the income cap from a House version of the package that disqualifies individuals making more than $75,000, and families earning more than $150,000, from receiving a full rebate.

The Senate’s approach of expanding the rebates to higher income taxpayers has divided House lawmakers representing New York City, where the cost of living is high and some firefighters, police officers, and public school teachers earn more than $75,000.

“I like the Senate version. I’d like to make sure everyone is included,” a Democrat who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens, said.

The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles Rangel of Harlem, criticized the move, however, warning in a statement that it could “open Pandora’s box” and jeopardize the entire $146 billion stimulus package. “By eliminating the income cap, we would only further grow the divide between rich and poor that has already grown so much under President Bush’s tax policies,” Mr. Rangel, a Democrat who is the dean of the state congressional delegation, said.

Eliminating the income cap for the rebates is one of several changes that Mr. Baucus has proposed for the Senate version, which would add at least $10 billion in estimated cost to the bill the House passed yesterday, 385–35. The Senate proposal would also extend unemployment benefits — which many Democrats in both chambers had advocated, but many Republicans had warned would discourage job seeking — and give rebates to seniors who live entirely on Social Security and do not pay taxes. To keep costs down, the Senate bill would reduce the standard rebate to $500 for each individual, from $600.

Both versions include tax breaks for businesses, such as allowing companies to write off immediate purchases of new equipment.
Economists said removing the income cutoff would add little if any stimulus and that it was likely a political maneuver.

“It’s a blatant attempt to buy votes from the conservatives in the Republican Party by Chairman Baucus,” a senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Rea Hederman, said.

Republicans have resisted Democratic efforts to expand stimulus aid to non-taxpayers, and expanding the rebates to higher-income Americans may bring more of them on board.

Democrats have urged targeting the stimulus to low-income citizens who are more likely to spend money right away. “They don’t necessarily spend the rebate,” an economist at the Brookings Institution who advised President Clinton, Jason Furman, said of wealthier taxpayers. “So in terms of fiscal stimulus, it’s less effective.”

Rep. Joseph Crowley, a Democrat who represents Queens and the Bronx, said that while he was open to raising the income cap for the rebates, he didn’t see a point in eliminating it entirely. “Giving $500 to a millionaire doesn’t do anything for that person,” he said.

The broader fear among House leaders yesterday was that by tinkering too much with the stimulus bill, the Senate would risk shattering the fragile compromise struck between legislators from both parties and the Bush administration.

The president in his State of the Union address on Monday urged lawmakers to approve the measure “as soon as possible.”

“The temptation will be to load up the bill,” Mr. Bush said. “That would delay it or derail it, and neither option is acceptable.”

Several House Democrats, including Mr. Meeks, said yesterday that while they liked elements of the Senate version, keeping the compromise together was more important.

The administration and Congress have rushed to put together the package, heeding warnings that a drawn-out debate would make it impossible to jumpstart the economy in time to avert a recession.

The Senate majority leader, Harold Reid of Nevada, has set a goal of passing legislation by Presidents Day in mid-February, but he has also said the upper chamber would have its say on the bill. “The Senate will continue working without delay and in a bipartisan fashion to see if we can improve on this product,” he said in a statement yesterday. A spokesman said he hoped to hold a vote by the end of this week.

Still, several Democrats, including Senator Schumer, have already announced plans to introduce further amendments on top of the changes proposed by Mr. Baucus.

Senator Clinton told reporters on a campaign conference call that the House bill “can and should be improved,” praising efforts to extend unemployment benefits and include additional aid for low-income Americans. She did not say whether she supported eliminating the income cap for the rebates.

If the Senate passes a version separate from the House, lawmakers would have to reconcile the two bills in a conference, potentially delaying the process further. The treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, has said it would take the Internal Revenue Service at least 10 weeks to cut rebate checks once a bill is signed into law.