Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is finishing out her term as House Majority leader. (Photo courtesy of AP)

The United States Congress is checking items off their Christmas list today before it adjourns in December as a number of legislative measures moved through both houses Tuesday.

Most notably, the Senate rejected a bill banning earmarking today, which would have stopped unrelated distribution of funding for local projects in federal bills for up to two years.

The 39-56 vote against the earmark ban was still looked upon positively by politicians, as the vote tally against was up 10 votes from a 29-68 failure of an earlier version of the bill in March.

The Senate also voted on giving the Food and Drug Administration more regulatory control, allowing the use of new technology to trace a possible outbreaks of disease back to its source.

“It seems to be a very sensible precaution and a long time coming,” said Donna Spruijt-Metz, an associate professor at the Keck School of Medicine.” [But] are there adequate checks and balances, whose going to inspect the inspectors?”

The 73-25 vote comes in the wake of E. coli and salmonella outbreaks from peanuts, eggs and other produce in recent years. The House is slated to vote on the bill later this week.

The lame-duck session is also examining the extension of unemployment benefits to the jobless. If no legislation is passed by Tuesday’s deadline, the benefits will expire this week.

The House failed to pass a bill on November 18 that would have extended the deadline three more months for the unemployed to file for jobless benefits.  Jobless payments from the federal government last up to 73 weeks, after 26 weeks of state benefits.

“Proponents of extension say that unemployment benefits are the most effective tool the government has to counteract the recession,” said Douglas H. Joines, a USC professor of finance and business economics.

According to the Associated Press, the effect of not renewing unemployment benefits can severely impact the economy. Annual economic growth could fall by one half to nearly 1 percent, up to 1 million people could lose their jobs and hundreds of thousands could fall into poverty.

“Opponents say that extending the unemployment benefits will actually cause more unemployment,” Joines added. “They’re right in the sense that subsidizing unemployment causes people to look longer for a new job.”