Updated: 1:53 p.m.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi today urged Speaker John Boehner to bring up a vote on extending tax cuts for middle-class income earners “as early as next week,” when the House returns from recess.

“By ensuring that the middle-income tax cuts do not expire, we will put money into the pockets of American consumers, saving the typical middle-income family thousands of dollars per year,” the California Democrat wrote in a letter released today.

Pelosi is reiterating calls by Democratic leaders to allow the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts to expire for high income earners but extend them for middle-class income earners. She argues that allowing the same tax cuts to expire for high income earners could help pay down the deficit.

Pelosi’s proposal would allow tax rates to increase for individuals earning more than $1 million per year and use the revenues from those rate increases to reduce the federal deficit.

The letter strikes a more optimistic tone than that of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who on Tuesday sent a terse letter to Senate Republicans saying he does not see a way to reach bipartisan agreement on deficit reduction or taxes before the November elections.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, said the Ohio Republican “has already announced that the House will act to stop the tax hike on every American taxpayer.”

Republicans are proposing to extend all the tax cuts.