Congress has all the ingredients for a political pressure cooker when members return from the long August recess, as House Republican leadership appears poised to balance must-pass spending bills with calls from hard-line conservatives to escalate congressional investigations.
By September, there could be new criminal indictments of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, and pressure to pursue an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden or other members of his administration.
There are also looming deadlines to pass a new farm bill and reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as prevent a partial government shutdown, with the two chambers taking sharply different approaches to the fiscal 2024 spending bills.
