On Thursday, House Democrats will vote on a resolution formally laying out the next steps and procedures of their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Technically, House committees have been in the middle of an impeachment inquiry since September, but this vote marks the next big step, especially as lawmakers and committees move from closed-door depositions to public hearings.
As Vox’s Li Zhou explained, the resolution lays out five key aspects of committee procedures going forward, including detailing how the House Intelligence Committee will actually conduct public hearings, who will get to ask questions, and saying that the House Judiciary Committee will be in charge of advancing articles of impeachment — if and when the time comes. The resolution says the House Intelligence Committee will also make public transcripts of some of the private depositions they’ve already held.
To be clear, we are nowhere near the House moving toward an actual vote on articles of impeachment; Thursday’s vote is simply the next step laying out how Democrats will start to make their public case for impeaching Trump. Still, it’s a big moment: It’s the first time lawmakers will take a recorded vote on whether they think President Trump’s conduct with Ukraine is worth investigating.
And thanks to CSPAN, anyone can watch this vote happen.
When will Thursday’s vote happen: The vote series on Thursday’s impeachment inquiry resolution is expected to start around 10:30 am ET. But getting to the actual vote could take a little longer, considering debate and procedural motions.
How to watch: The impeachment inquiry resolution vote, like all House votes, will be streamed live on CSPAN, which you can watch online at https://www.c-span.org/. It will also be streamed on Vox’s Facebook page.
What to expect: Democrats have more than the required 218 votes to pass such a resolution; numerous moderates have come out in favor of an impeachment inquiry and this vote is simply laying out the ground rules for how they’ll proceed. A few things to watch out for is if any moderate Democrats defect at the last minute (at least one New Jersey Democrat, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, said he plans to vote against the resolution), if any moderate Republicans vote for the resolution, or if Republicans try to cause any procedural headaches for Democrats by attempting to tack on last-minute amendments.
