It's a classic kind of Thursday in the Congress, as Democrats try to force action on a series of major bills before lawmakers make a run to the airport on Friday for a week-long Memorial Day break.

If you are a scheduler for a member of the House or Senate, you probably want to think about plane reservations on Friday, but you never know what might happen along the way.

The House has two main items on the agenda - a jobs/jobless/tax breaks, etc bill, and a defense policy bill that includes a vote on an amendment that would pave the way for the end of the ban on gays in the military, which will require a separate vote either today or tomorrow.

Also in the House Appropriations Committee, Democrats will move an $84 billion supplemental for the war in Afghanistan, which includes about $50 billion in items unrelated to the war, like money for border security, oil spill cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico and a $23 billion chunk of money that Democrats say will help states avoid teacher layoffs.

On their own, any of those items are big enough on the agenda.

The jobless benefits measure was slimmed down last night, because the plan was simply too big for many Democrats to swallow, as it includes extended jobless benefits, tax breaks, tax increases and a  Medicare "Doc Fix" that had to be shortened by two years to cut the cost of the bill.

As of late Wednesday night, Democrats were moving ahead with a vote, but they were still trying to put together a majority.  Nervous Democrats weren't thrilled with voting for a bill that would raise the deficit by around $100 billion.

The changes made last night included some limits on extended jobless benefits, "conditions related to the availability for work, active search for work and refusal to accept work" said new language added to the bill.

The plan now would fund extended jobless benefits through the end of November, one month shorter than originally planned.

While the House tussles over those matters, the Senate will be deep in debate over its own version of the Afghan war funding bill.  As documented above, the House plan is now at $84 billion; the Senate bill is around $60 billion.

Votes will come this morning on proposals by Republicans to add $2 billion for border security measurs along the Southwest border with Mexico, as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) leads a group that wants more than the President's plan to add 1200 border patrol agents.  McCain wants 6,000.

Also being voted on today in the Senate, a plan from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would fund the Afghan war bill and all of its extras by making offsetting budget cuts.  Some of them include freezing pay increases for federal workers, putting a cap on the number of employees that can work for Uncle Sam and more.

While Coburn argues that some deficit measures are needed, it's not expected that Democrats will sign on to that plan, but it might be closer than usual for amendments from the Oklahoma Senator on budget matters.

Senate Democrats want to get the Afghan funding bill finished and then move on to the combo jobless benefits extension/tax breaks/tax increases/Doc Fix bill that's going before the House today, but getting all that done by Friday seems a longshot.

We'll see where it goes today, as Congress makes a big push on a bunch of big bills.