Congressman Al Green, TX, has "officially" called for impeachment. Now what?

[pnwmom]

Also, CNN sources say that White House lawyers are researching impeachment procedures, preparing for the “distant possibility” of an impeachment proceeding.

So the question is, when a member of Congress makes a formal call, does that start a formal process? Does a House committee now need to take some kind of action -- to officially consider his call for impeachment? Or can they table the call without having a discussion or taking a vote?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/17/politics/al-green-impeachment-call/

Washington (CNN)Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump Wednesday morning, the first member of Congress to officially request leveling charges against the President from the House floor.



http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/19/politics/donald-trump-white-house-lawyers-research-impeachment/

Washington (CNN) White House lawyers have begun researching impeachment procedures in an effort to prepare for what officials still believe is a distant possibility that President Donald Trump could have to fend off attempts to remove him from office, two people briefed on the discussions tell CNN.
White House officials believe the President has the backing of Republican allies in Congress and that impeachment is not in the cards, according to the people briefed on the legal discussions. Even Democrats have tried to calm impeachment talk out of concern it is premature.

But lawyers in the White House counsel's office have consulted experts in impeachment during the past week and have begun collecting information on how such proceedings would work, a person briefed on the matter told CNN.

The White House originally did not comment for this story. After publication, a White House official said "it's not true" that White House lawyers are researching impeachment procedures.

[Locutusofborg]

1. Now...

You try to get every Democrat in the House of Representatives (193 of them) plus 25 Republicans to agree. I don't see Speaker Paul Ryan allowing a Bill of Impeachment to be drafted, though.

[SaschaHM]

2. This isn't a formal call. It's just a speech.

To begin the process, a house member would need to list the charges against the official under oath or ask for a referral to the appropriate committee of the house.

Unless otherwise stated, Rep. Green did neither and as such, this will go nowhere.

[MineralMan]

3. Well...That's one.

And no, it doesn't start a process. Individual congress members also read recipes into the Congressional Record. That doesn't mean that those dishes will be served in the dining room, either.

[jberryhill]

4. Oh my goodness...

Instead of following twitter rumors, a more productive use of time might be to learn something about how the US system of government actually works.

Impeachment does not work by someone in the House, or the House at large, voting on a proposition of "Let's impeach him! Yes or no?"

The Articles of Impeachment, is essentially like a criminal complaint. It is a set of specific charges supported by factual propositions which support those charges.

Like any document to be voted on by the House, it is drafted and passed in committee, and then it is moved to the floor for debate etc..

It is introduced like any other resolution.

It is not "Hey, let's vote on something someone said in a speech."

[pnwmom]

5. Why do you think I asked the question? To find out more about the procedures.

I asked a serious question. Thanks for answering -- but you could have done it without the insults. I never suggested that I thought impeachment "worked" by "someone in the House, or the House at large, voting on a proposition of 'Let's impeach him! Yes or no?' I wanted to know what it takes simply to begin the process -- if Rep. Green's call was enough.

So you didn't really address my specific question, but never mind. Other people have.

What needs to happen for an impeachment process to begin is for someone to enter a "Resolution of Impeachment" and that hasn't happened yet, although Rep Green says he will if no one else does.

[jberryhill]

6. No, you still don't understand

Have you ever noticed that bills are numbered "HR NNNN" where NNNN is a number?

It stands for "House Resolution".

They don't just "introduce a resolution of impeachment". They draft, pass in committee, and then move to the floor a resolution - the entire bill which I described - and vote on that.

This document then forms the "charges" on which the Senate conducts a trial.

Were you not around in the Clinton years?

[pnwmom]

7. I'm going by articles in the MSM, that indicate an individual

Congressman can introduce such a resolution, and that would begin the process.

Of course I know that actual ARTICLES of impeachment take a long time to get drawn up and passed. I'm just asking what triggers the BEGINNING of the process.

I still haven't gotten the answer to what happens if someone introduces a formal resolution of impeachment -- whether it must be given at least some consideration by a committee or if it can be immediately tabled.

ON EDIT: Related to this is Laurence Tribe's call for Congress to "launch" the impeachment process. But he does not explain how it would get "launched," either.

http://thehill.com/video/lawmaker-interviews/333874-watch-house-dem-threatens-to-introduce-impeachment-resolution

The House Democratic lawmaker calling for President Trump's impeachment is threatening to introduce a resolution to start the process in Congress.

"I have reserved the right and continue to reserve the right to introduce a resolution of impeachment. ... I have not done that but I will do that if it is not done by others," Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) says in an interview with The Hill's Molly K. Hooper.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-must-be-impeached-heres-why/2017/05/13/82ce2ea4-374d-11e7-b4ee-434b6d506b37_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-c%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.58d1e3654c95

By Laurence Tribe

The time has come for Congress to launch an impeachment investigation of President Trump for obstruction of justice.

SNIP

It will require serious commitment to constitutional principle, and courageous willingness to put devotion to the national interest above self-interest and party loyalty, for a Congress of the president’s own party to initiate an impeachment inquiry. It would be a terrible shame if only the mounting prospect of being voted out of office in November 2018 would sufficiently concentrate the minds of representatives and senators today.

But whether it is devotion to principle or hunger for political survival that puts the prospect of impeachment and removal on the table, the crucial thing is that the prospect now be taken seriously, that the machinery of removal be reactivated, and that the need to use it become the focus of political discourse going into 2018.

[jberryhill]

8. Sigh...

Yes, any representative may introduce a resolution calling for anything they'd like. It is a common form of political showboating. What happens next after that is... nothing.

They're going to have to have a committee to draft the articles and vote them out of the committee.