WASHINGTON  - Two key U.S. senators introduced a bill on Monday that would provide businesses with a bigger tax break for machinery and equipment purchases, a move they hope will help boost economic growth and create jobs.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat, and Sen. Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the panel, introduced the legislation saying it will help small businesses, a sector that has been struggling in the slow economic recovery.

"This tax cut provides a double benefit by creating an opportunity for small businesses to purchase new equipment while also helping the companies that manufacture and sell equipment to small businesses," Baucus says.

The bill would extend through 2010 provisions that expired at the end of 2009 that allowed businesses to more quickly write off on their taxes the purchase of new equipment and machinery.

The proposal is likely to be made a part of a package of small business lending proposals and tax breaks that lawmakers hope will help create jobs and reduce the 9.7 percent unemployment rate.

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