WASHINGTON (AP) — House lawmakers are returning to Capitol Hill to weigh a proposal by GOP leaders to extend the 2-percentage-point cut in the payroll tax through the end of the year and add the roughly $100 billion cost to the nation's $15 trillion-plus debt instead of scrounging around the budget for ways to pay for it.

In the Democratic-majority Senate, a top leader said the proposal was "a major step forward" even as other Democrats worried it could jeopardize efforts to renew unemployment benefits for millions of the long-term jobless and efforts to forestall a scheduled cut in fees to doctors who treat Medicare patients. Those proposals would remain in the hands of a House-Senate negotiating panel that's looking for spending cuts to defray the deficit impact.

President Barack Obama was scheduled to make a statement on the payroll tax at the White House Tuesday morning, and the idea is sure to be a topic of conversation Tuesday at the weekly closed-door conferences of Senate Democrats and Republicans.