But Mr. Flanagan’s remarks seemed to do little to quell the questions around the stipend deal, which Senate Democrats have seized on as a powerful cudgel to attack the Republicans and their partners in the Independent Democratic Conference, an eight-member breakaway group that helps the G.O.P. maintain leadership in the Senate.

Three of the I.D.C.’s members — Diane Savino of Staten Island, Jose R. Peralta of Queens and David J. Valesky of Syracuse — have been beneficiaries of the awarding of chairman stipends despite not holding that post. Ms. Savino and Mr. Valesky declined to speak with reporters, with Mr. Valesky dashing past a phalanx of reporters posted outside the Senate chambers.

Mr. Peralta, however, did speak to the news media, arguing that he had taken a pay cut to be identified as the chairman of the Energy and Telecommunications Committee. He is the vice chairman. He added that while the law did not mention that vice chairmen receive stipends, “it doesn’t necessarily mention that it doesn’t.”

“The bottom line here is that we have, the Senate has, the discretion” to set stipends, he said. “That’s what happened in this case.”

Senate Democrats, however, saw the issue in distinctly different terms, issuing their own legal opinion saying that Mr. Flanagan’s interpretation was an “open invitation to further corruption.”

“Vice chairs have never gotten money,” said Mike Murphy, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats. “And under the Republican leadership, starting with convicted felon Dean Skelos and continued by John Flanagan, they now are. And it’s illegal.”

The debate over the stipends seemed ripe for clarification from law enforcement. Knowingly presenting false documents to any public official or agency is a crime, a charge technically known as offering a false instrument.