WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate has slated a vote tonight on a revised $700 billion financial-rescue plan, which it has linked to an extension of tax breaks and an increase in bank deposit-insurance limits in an effort to woo Republicans, according to Bloomberg News.

Votes also are planned on the associated proposals: a temporary increase in the ceiling on coverage through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to $250,000 per depositor per financial institution, from the current $100,000; and a two-year extension of capital gains breaks for individuals and corporations.

A measure without the tax break and FDIC proposals – the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, hammered out with input from Democratic and Republican congressional leaders – was defeated by the U.S. House on Monday in a 228-to-205 vote. (READ MORE) Democrats voted 140 to 95 in favor of the legislation, while 65 Republicans backed the bill and 133 opposed it, Bloomberg News said.

The measure’s passage is necessary to restore confidence in the global financial system, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet told Bloomberg Television during an interview yesterday in Frankfurt. “It has to go, for the sake of the U.S. and for the sake of global finance,” Trichet said. “I am confident, but of course it is the decision of the U.S. Congress.”

Stocks in Europe and Asia rose today in anticipation of the measure’s likely passage in the Senate, where opposition is limited, although U.S. markets fell on gloomy economic and corporate-profit reports, Bloomberg said. At 12:25 p.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 72.96, or 0.7 percent, to 10,777.7; the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down 10.52, or 0.9 percent, to 1,155.84; and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 26.82, or 1.3 percent, to 2,065.06 points.

Additional information about legislation before the U.S. Congress is available from the Library of Congress at thomas.loc.gov. Information about the administration’s bailout proposals is available from the Federal Reserve Board at www.FederalReserve.gov and the U.S. Treasury Department at www.treas.gov.