WASHINGTON – On Monday, the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously approved the "Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2007," Investment News reports. The full House is scheduled to consider the bill this week.

Drafted by Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Rep. Jim McCrery (R-LA), the legislation would give tax credits for small business owners and raise the capital spending amount a business could write off.

This bill also could help the House and Senate come to terms on legislation to increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour, the newspaper reports. According to congressional estimates, the bill’s tax cuts would translate into $1.3 billion in lost revenue for the U.S. Treasury over a decade. In the Senate bill passed two weeks ago, tax cuts would result in $8.3 billion over the 10 years.

"An overwhelming number of Americans support increasing the minimum wage – in fact most states have already raised their wages above the federal minimum of $5.15,” Chairman Rangel said in a statement. “The president has been supportive of this increase and today's action is a good way of showing that this Congress can, and intends to, work in a bipartisan way."