Congress and the president have yet to resolve their differences over an emergency spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Caught in the middle of this fight are high-priority proposals to raise the minimum wage, provide stopgap funding for a children's health insurance program, and restore some cuts for energy assistance. A drawn-out debate over war funding could end up causing unnecessary hardship for people who depend on the passage of these initiatives. War Funding President Bush vetoed the first FY 2007 supplemental appropriations bill, H.R. 1591, demanding that Congress strip it of language that set a goal for redeploying most soldiers out of Iraq by March 31, 2008. As an alternative, some Democrats and moderate Republicans had proposed using "benchmarks" for improvements in Iraq as a gauge for funding. But the Bush administration said that too would not fly. Yet under heavy pressure from moderate Republicans, the president appears to have shifted his position and is willing to accept legislative "benchmarks" for improvement in Iraq, but no further details as to the preferred timing, type and consequences of the benchmarks have been publicly discussed. Following the veto of the supplemental appropriations bill, the House divided the original bill into two. H.R. 2206 includes all spending from the original bill except for agricultural programs and certain aid for western states. The $96 billion in military funding within the bill lacks withdrawal timetables and goals. However, this war funding is broken up into two installments, and the bill conditions the release of the second installment on congressional approval in July. The $4.5 billion H.R. 2207 contains the funding measures for agriculture programs and aid to western states that were excluded from H.R. 2206. The House passed both bills on May 10 (221-205 and 302-120, respectively), and the president responded with promises to veto each bill should it reach his desk. The Senate has not taken action since the president's veto of H.R. 1591, though an agreement between the House and Senate on the supplemental bills is expected by the end of the week of May 21. Minimum Wage Increase Held up by the debate over military funding are a host of high-priority initiatives, the most consequential of which is arguably an increase in the minimum wage. A provision contained in H.R. 2206 would raise it from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour, phased in over two years. The original supplemental vetoed by Bush also included this minimum wage language. The minimum wage was last adjusted in 1997. Since then, the cost of living has risen 26 percent nationally. Indeed, the real value of the minimum wage is the lowest it has been in over 50 years, according to the Economic Policy Institute. It has been over five months since the House first passed the minimum wage increase, which it overwhelmingly did on Jan. 10, while the Senate passed the same increase on Feb. 1. Until the supplemental debate, an attached tax cut package that the Senate initiated had delayed the passage of the minimum wage bill. The value of these tax cuts was as high as $12 billion, but the House and Senate have now agreed to a $4.8 billion package. The tax cuts principally benefit businesses in the view of some and are fully offset. Children's Health Insurance The war funding debate has also delayed a stopgap appropriation for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that in the current fiscal year, SCHIP funds are about $750 million short of the amount needed to cover the same number of children as it did in 2006. This would be the same as the cost to insure 510,000 children. A more recent estimate by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), supported by the Congressional Budget Office, put the shortfall at $650 million. H.R. 2207 provides about $650 million in SCHIP funding. The total cost of the stopgap funding is about $400 million, because additional SCHIP funds reduce expenditures in Medicaid by about $250 million. As many as 14 states are projected to have insufficient SCHIP funding by the end of 2007. Georgia has already run out of SCHIP funding for some beneficiaries, all of whom have been moved to a similar, but less comprehensive plan under Medicaid. Bruce Lesley, the president of First Focus, a children's advocacy organization, told The Hill that more states will run behind on funding by late summer. Energy Assistance, Hurricane Relief, and Rural Schools H.R. 2206 also includes a $400 million boost for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Despite high energy costs, funding for the LIHEAP program was cut from $3.2 billion in FY 2006 to $2 billion in FY 2007. There is also $6.8 billion in funding for Gulf Coast hurricane relief, about $3 billion above the president's request. About $1.4 billion of the unrequested funding would go toward rebuilding the levee system in New Orleans. About $400 million is also included in H.R. 2207 for educational aid to communities that have been hurt by a long-term decline in the timber-harvesting industry. It seems only a matter of time before Congress and the president finally reach a deal on the war funding issue. But the slow pace of the negotiations — as well as the inclusion of these provisions in the debate — could carry high costs.