WASHINGTON — Summer break over and elections ahead, Congress is beginning an abbreviated September session with must-do tasks of preventing a government shutdown and extending a freeze on taxing access to the Internet.

Lawmakers will find time, too, for votes conveying political messages primed for fall campaigning.

Republicans who run the House may have lousy approval ratings, but they are poised to pad their 17-vote majority and determined to avoid mistakes like last year’s partial government shutdown. That fight was over implementation of President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Now, the GOP is pressing for drama-free passage of a temporary spending bill to prevent a federal shutdown at month’s end and fund government agencies past the Nov. 4 election into mid-December. The Senate is sure to go along if that measure is kept free of objectionable add-ons.

House Republicans also plan votes aimed at drawing attention to legislation they say would boost jobs and energy production.