Congress took action on a number of jobs bills this week, only some of which may pass:

HR 4213 : Six Republicans joined Senate Democrats in passing a $140 billion jobs bill Wednesday. The package extends jobless benefits and tax cuts for COBRA health insurance, college tuition, and research in high-tech industries.

The 62-36 vote moves the bill back to the House, where it must be reconciled with the version passed there.

HR 2847 : The Senate has yet to approve changes the House made to a slimmer bill proposed by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Reid had said that a bill extending jobless benefits would follow that $17.6 billion bill   offering payroll tax relief, local bonds subsidies, small business deductions, and highway allocations that were most urgent.

HR 4236: House Democrats plan to introduce an even smaller package to give tax breaks to small businesses. The House Ways and Means Committee expects to unveil the $13 billion package on Friday, our sister publication CQ reports.

It's modeled after an earlier proposal, HR 4236, by Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.), who said the bill would contain cost offsets through taxes that are still being hashed out.

Moderate Democrats have resisted jobs proposals that would add to a rising federal deficit.

Local Jobs for America Act: One costly proposal came from House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) this week, who offered a $100 billion proposal to boost local jobs and help government workers acquire new skills.

The Campaign for Community Change, a liberal grassroots group, applauded the effort, saying Miller's Local Jobs for America Act would create one million jobs.

"Grassroots organizing helped produce 70 co-sponsors for a similar piece of legislation introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) last December that laid the groundwork for Rep. Miller's proposal today," Deepak Bhargava, CCC executive director, said.

Miller admitted that the bill doesn't lay out a way to pay for those jobs.

-- Ambreen Ali, Congress.org