House Bill Pins Wage Increase To Iraq Funding

House leaders have added legislation raising the federal minimum wage to an emergency spending bill for the Iraq war. They hope to break a logjam with the Senate over the wage bill, a top Democratic priority that was once seen on Capitol Hill as a relatively easy compromise.

House leaders also hope the addition of the wage provisions will induce House liberals to vote for the $105 billion war package, which authorizes funds for Iraq while setting a timeline for withdrawal that would require combat operations to end by August 2008.

House Democrats unveiled the plan yesterday but did not release a draft of the legislation, saying that details were being worked out. According to Democratic aides, the proposal would increase the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour from $5.15 over two years and grant $1.3 billion in tax breaks for restaurants and other affected businesses.

Those provisions have already passed the House. The Senate also approved the wage increase, but added $8.3 billion in business tax breaks to placate Republicans in that chamber. House leaders oppose such a large tax package and hope to force a smaller one through the Senate by tying the minimum-wage increase to the Iraq bill.

Negotiations over the minimum wage bill have been stalled since mid-February, when the House overwhelmingly approved the smaller tax package. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), one of the chief architects of the Senate package, complained that the Senate proposal amounts to "peanuts" in comparison with previous minimum-wage deals, but that the House was offering only a "peanut shell."

Senate Republicans have since prevented Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) from bringing the House tax package bill to a vote in the Senate so the issue can proceed to a conference committee, where the two chambers would attempt to resolve their differences.

It was unclear yesterday whether the Iraq bill would help forge progress on the wage issue. The Iraq measure's prospects are uncertain even in the House, where Democratic leaders acknowledge they are still trying to round up votes.

Whatever happens to the Iraq bill, Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said he had little doubt Congress would give final approval to a minimum-wage increase before the spring is out.

"We've been working on it steadily," Stewart said. "This is a bill that's going to pass and be on the president's desk."