NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Instead of including a provision for major AMT relief in 2006, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) opted instead to propose a two-year extension of reduced tax rates on capital gains and dividends in a tax bill he introduced late Thursday.

The bill, scheduled for a committee vote on Nov. 15, is sure to provoke controversy, not only in the House but when the House and Senate have to reconcile their final 2006 tax bills into one.

Since 2001, lawmakers have routinely issued a temporary increase on Alternative Minimum Tax exemption levels to prevent millions of taxpayers from falling prey to the tax, which was originally intended only for the very wealthy. Thomas has said in various reports that a decision to avoid calling for a "patch" on AMT exemption levels could spur momentum for tax reform by revealing the full impact of the AMT.

Meanwhile, a Senate tax bill, introduced by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, does call for temporary AMT relief.

The capital gains and dividend extension is contentious in its own right. Under current law, the 15 percent rate (5 percent for low and middle-income taxpayers, reduced to 0 percent in 2008) is set to increase after 2008. Thomas's bill calls for current rates to be extended through 2010.

Opponents of the measure say it's hard to justify an extension of a tax break that disproportionately benefits higher-income taxpayers when lawmakers, under pressure to reduce the deficit, are also proposing to cut spending on programs like Medicaid and food stamps, which affect the poor and working poor.

(House Republicans postponed a vote on a budget bill Thursday due to opposition not only from Democrats but some moderate Republicans over spending cuts to programs that serve the poor.)

Grassley's bill ran into trouble Thursday over his capital gains and dividend measure.

Originally, he wanted to include a two-year extension, but changed it to a one-year extension in hopes of appeasing Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Me.), the only Republican holdout on the committee who has expressed concern over granting the extension now when there are more immediate budgetary concerns in light of, among other things, Hurricane Katrina.

But no consensus was reached Thursday, so Grassley postponed the vote until Monday, Nov. 14. If he chooses to drop the investment tax cut provision altogether, he then may meet resistance from other Republicans who have been pushing for an extension.

Beyond the differences over AMT relief and extension of investment tax cuts, the House and Senate tax bills do both offer extensions for some of the same tax breaks that affect individuals, although not always for the same length of time.

Among the common elements between the two bills are extensions on the tuition deduction, the saver's credit and the option to deduct to state and local sales tax paid in place of income tax.