Funding the military, ensuring the jobless don't run out of benefits and maintaining the government's authority to borrow are just a few of the outstanding items as Congress rushes to finish its work in the dwindling days of this year.

With the Senate focused solely on health care legislation and no time left to consider bills separately, several of the most important unfinished issues will be attached to a $626 billion defense spending bill the House is expected to take up Wednesday.

House Democratic leaders also said there would be a vote Wednesday on a $153 billion jobs package that invests in highway and school renovation projects and provides emergency relief for the jobless.

The measures to be included in the defense bill include two-month extensions of several programs set to die at year's end, among them federal jobless benefits approved as part of the economic stimulus package last February, health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and federal funds for highway and other infrastructure projects.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, at a news conference Tuesday, said the package will also extend for two months several provisions of the anti-terror Patriot Act that are set to expire while the two chambers work out issues of surveillance and privacy rights.

A small business loan program, a satellite TV distribution law and a measure that temporarily shields doctors from a sharp cut in Medicare payments are also expected to be part of the defense bill, which Hoyer said he hoped the Senate would accept without modification so it can quickly be sent to President Barack Obama signature.

The spate of two-month extensions of current law means that Congress will have to return to the issues in February, clogging up a legislative schedule when Democrats will want to focus on jobs, deficit reduction and clean energy legislation. But Democrats have no choice, given the demands of the Senate. "In a world of alternatives, that's the one we have," Hoyer said.

Hoyer said the House on Wednesday will also approve a stopgap measure to ensure that Pentagon isn't deprived of money because of congressional delays in approving the defense bill, and a measure to raise the debt ceiling.

House action on all those bills would conclude its major tasks for the year. It would still have to wait for the Senate, where debate could spill over into Christmas week, depending on Senate action on the health care overhaul bill.