The text of the impeachment process resolution was released on Oct. 29, two days before a vote was scheduled. No vote has taken place on the inquiry as of yet; three previous votes on impeaching President Trump failed.
H. Res. 660 deals with how the impeachment inquiry will move forward against President Donald Trump. The inquiry was announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last month based on a whistleblower, who is not a whistleblower but a leaker made by an anonymous person against the president.
Pelosi initially said a vote on the resolution will be held on Thursday.
The text of the pending resolution says that “certain committees” will “continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America, and for other purposes.”
The resolution authorizes the House Intelligence Committee to hold open or closed hearings, during which Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) will question witnesses for equal periods of time of longer than five minutes.
Schiff will be able to let others question witnesses in the inquiry for blocks of time as long as 90 minutes in total.
If Schiff agrees, Nunes can subpoena or request attendance and testimony of any person and the production of books, correspondence, and other documents.
Schiff would also be authorized to release to the public transcripts of depositions conducted by his committee with appropriate redactions for classified and other sensitive information.
After the inquiry is over, Schiff, Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), and acting Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) will issue a report about what was found during the probe.
The resolution also authorizes Schiff to transfer any records or materials from the inquiry to the Judiciary Committee, which is headed by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). The Judiciary Committee is authorized through the resolution “to conduct proceedings relating to the impeachment inquiry referenced in the first section of this resolution 13 pursuant to the procedures submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the chair of the Committee on Rules, including such procedures as to allow for the participation of the President and his counsel.”
The White House on Tuesday evening responding to a proposed resolution put forward by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on an inquiry on impeaching President Donald Trump.
A statement from the Trump administration said Pelosi’s plan shows that the “Democrats’ impeachment has been an illegitimate sham from the start as it lacked any proper authorization by a House vote.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the head of the House Intelligence Committee, as someone who “repeatedly lies to the American people.”
“The White House is barred from participating at all, until after Chairman Schiff conducts two rounds of one-sided hearings to generate a biased report for the Judiciary Committee. Even then, the White House’s rights remain undefined, unclear, and uncertain—because those rules still haven’t been written,” the statement said.
The resolution, furthermore, does not allow due process rights to the Trump administration, according to the statement.
On Tuesday, House Democrats unveiled the text of a resolution that lays out basic procedures for public hearings on the impeachment inquiry. Republican lawmakers and the Democrats are carrying out the inquiry by secret depositions and leaking information to the media.
The House Rules Committee will look at the bill on Wednesday before bringing it to a full House vote on Thursday, according to reports.
However, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the measure is “not an impeachment resolution” and that it might not be “ready to go on Thursday,” according to the Washington Examiner.
“This is not an impeachment resolution,” Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday. “I don’t know what an impeachment resolution is.” The wording of the measure is titled “resolution.”
Hoyer controls the House floor schedule. “We are going to have to consider whether or not it is ready to go on Thursday,” he said on Tuesday.