Minimum wage became collateral damage when President vetoed the Iraq War spending bill. Jesse Russell reports:

Little attention was given to the decision by Democratic leadership to attach the minimum wage increase, a key part of their legislative agenda, to the Iraq War spending bill – a bill they knew President George W. Bush had planned to veto. Under the bill the federal minimum wage would have increased from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour and would have provided tax relief for small businesses. Bush has said in the past that he would support such a measure, but was unwilling to let it pass while being tied with military funding with benchmark dates for U.S. troop withdrawals. Rep. Steny Hoyer said that as Congress sits down to draft a new war spending bill, he expects the minimum wage bill to once again be attached to it. Another option would be to send the minimum wage hike with tax breaks to the President as a standalone package. It has been nearly a decade since the last minimum wage increase.