Congress has a job to do. It should be that simple.

Congressmen return this week from a four-week hiatus during which they got to rub elbows with their constituents, go on junkets or just enjoy being out of Washington during the dog days of August.

Obstructionism wasn’t invented by this Republican Congress. But as recently as the 1980s, Democrats in Congress and Republican Ronald Reagan in the White House actually managed to govern despite their differences, some of them dramatic.

During the Reagan years, budgets were passed, taxes were cut and taxes were increased, immigration reform was passed, deregulation was pursued, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the Soviet Union was ratified by the Senate – that and more despite the unfolding of a real scandal, the Iran-Contra affair.

But in the years since then, partisan politics has made Washington, D.C., an increasingly dysfunctional place. Congressional Republicans went after Bill Clinton with a vengeance but still managed to get work done. Democrats responded in kind during the George W. Bush administration (absent an attempt to impeach the president).

But nothing approached the level of obstructionism that greeted President Barack Obama when he was inaugurated in 2009. A year later, the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, announced that his top priority was making Obama a one-term president. If that meant denying Obama political victories that may have improved the infrastructure, health care or created jobs, so be it.

Now McConnell, who has risen to Senate majority leader, and John Boehner of Ohio, the speaker of the House, are reaping what they sowed. Obduracy has become so ingrained in Washington, that they are meeting resistance not only from Democrats but from splinter groups within their own party.

Most of us realize that when we return from vacation, it is time to get down to business. And most of us would recognize that if we’re due to go on vacation again in another month, we really have to concentrate.

WHAT CONGRESS SHOULD DO

We’re not optimistic, but let’s hope that today’s gaggle of politicians, who are presently poised to give new meaning to the phrase do-nothing Congress, can rise to the challenge.

The first priority should be to fund the federal government for another year. But don’t be surprised if conservative forces spend more time fulminating about over heavily edited tapes of how Planned Parenthood obtains fetal tissue for research than they do discussing the nation’s funding priorities.

Like so much of what passes for politics today, this controversy is being fueled by the 24/7 news cycle and a presidential campaign that started a year early. Some ambitious members of the Senate are trying to prove that they can be more “conservative” than Donald Trump, a self-aggrandizing real estate developer turned reality TV star turned politician.

Meanwhile, here’s a partial list put together by the Associated Press of some of the work Congress ought to focus on:

There are 12 annual spending bills that remain in limbo over disparate disputes (from where the Confederate flag can fly to how much should be allotted to defense).

One of the most important pieces of legislation that should be getting attention is extension of federal highway programs. For a Congress that claimed jobs, jobs, jobs to be its first priority, a transportation bill should be a no-brainer. The three-month extension of highway funding passed in July expires Oct. 29.

Deadlines also are approaching for lawmakers to renew the Federal Aviation Administration’s authority to spend money. Also set to expire Sept. 30 are pipeline-safety standards and several vital child-nutrition programs, including the school lunch, school breakfast and summer meals programs and WIC.

Congress has until Sept. 17 to vote on the international nuclear deal with Iran. It will have to extend the government’s borrowing authority by Oct. 30 or face a first-ever federal default.

That’s a short list. And, by the way, there’s barely two weeks between Congress’ reconvening and the highly anticipated address to the joint chamber on Sept. 24 by Pope Francis.

This is a small window during which Congress has a lot of work that should be done. It’s also a window through which voters can see who in Congress is willing to earn a paycheck and who should be shown the door next November.