The Senate late Thursday may have its first vote on a component of President Barack Obama’s jobs bill – $35 billion for states and localities to hire more teachers and first responders while preventing current ones from being laid off.

The funding would be paid for by a 0.5% tax increase on people earning more than $1 million a year. Republicans oppose the tax increase, and the measure is expected to fail.

A vote may slip to Friday, the last day before a weeklong recess.

Republicans have blocked debate on the entire $447 billion jobs plan in the Senate. They argue that any tax increase would harm economic growth and job creation, while Obama and Democrats contend that the president’s package ensures immediate job growth.

Democrats are promising to force votes on individual components of the Obama plan.

Other components of the jobs bill to be voted on include funding for infrastructure projects and extending cuts in payroll taxes.

The Senate may also consider a Republican proposal to repeal a 3% withholding requirement for all government contractors. Businesses have decried it as burdensome.

The measure was part of Obama’s broad jobs package and has Democratic supporters. However, Democrats and Republicans disagree over how to offset the costs of eliminating the withholding, so it’s uncertain whether the GOP proposal can get enough Democratic votes to pass.

At a stop on a bus tour Wednesday, the president called on Congress to pass his jobs bill, saying to focus on jobs is “an American responsibility.”

Vice President Joe Biden campaigned for the bill on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, accused Obama of using his bus trip for political campaigning instead of working with Republicans on jobs legislation that can pass with support from both parties.

Among other things, Obama’s overall blueprint includes an extension and expansion of the current payroll tax cut, an extension of jobless benefits, new tax credits for businesses that hire the long-term unemployed, and additional money to help save and create jobs for teachers and first responders such as firefighters.