WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Congress returns from recess this week, lawmakers are tasked with avoiding a government shutdown in October. But three weeks before the election, campaign politics are coursing through the proceedings.

One of the pillars of former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is attacking the Biden administration’s handling of the southern U.S. border. The former president’s allies in Congress, including House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, are using their leadership positions to reinforce those attacks.

Jordan convened a politically charged hearing Tuesday entitled, “The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: Victim Perspectives.”

“We have a Democratic candidate who for years advocated for open borders. She was appointed the ‘border czar’ yet presided over the largest en masse illegal immigration in U.S. history,” Jordan said in his opening statement.

The hearing was part of an effort by House Republicans to highlight what they see as the Biden administration's failures and electoral weaknesses.

Jordan has previously used his position to pursue the possible impeachment of President Joe Biden and investigate the business dealings of his son, Hunter.

On Monday, Republicans released a report bashing Biden for the chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson held a ceremony posthumously awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to 13 U.S. servicemembers killed during the Afghanistan exit.

“The administration has failed these families. After all these years, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have not had the courtesy to this day to say their names publicly,” Johnson said.

Democrats have charged that such hearings and events are all about politics.

“We are sitting in yet one more partisan hearing designed to divide us and to score political points before an election,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D, N.Y.) said at the Tuesday Judciary Committee hearing. “In fact, one of our Republican colleagues said the quiet part out loud last week when he said, quote, ‘These are messaging hearings that we’re doing.’”

Republicans are able to set the agenda for committee hearings because they control the House. Using committee leadership to advance the party’s electoral fortunes, though, is not exclusive to either party. In the Democrat-controlled Senate, some committee hearings have been used to criticize Trump and his policies.