What are the procedural steps required in the House and Senate to move from filing articles of impeachment to a conviction and removal?
Executive summary
The Constitution establishes a two-step removal process: the House of Representatives brings charges by adopting articles of impeachment by simple majority, and the Senate conducts a trial and may convict and remove an official by a two‑thirds vote of those present [1] [2]. Practical procedure fills the constitutional skeleton: House committees investigate and draft articles, managers prosecute in the Senate, the Senate organizes a trial, and conviction triggers removal and an optional separate vote to disqualify from future office [1] [2] [3].
1. Initiation and inquiry in the House: how charges are born
Any House member may initiate impeachment by introducing a resolution or requesting referral for investigation, and the House typically assigns inquiries to relevant committees—most often Judiciary—which conduct investigations, gather evidence, hold hearings, and draft articles; the House’s internal rules and precedents govern those steps though the Constitution gives the House sole power to impeach [1] [4] [5].
2. Committee work and drafting articles: the grand‑jury analogue
Committee investigations function like a grand‑jury inquest: they subpoena documents and witnesses, vote to report articles of impeachment to the full House if staff and members conclude sufficient grounds exist, and recommend managers who will prosecute in the Senate; committee recommendations are not binding on the full House, which may amend or reject them [6] [7] [1].
3. House floor action: adoption of articles by majority
The full House considers the reported articles and votes; adoption of any article by a simple majority constitutes impeachment and formally charges the official, at which point the House appoints managers to present the case to the Senate [8] [1] [9].
4. Transmission to the Senate and initial Senate organization
Once the House adopts articles it transmits them to the Senate; the Senate then adopts orders notifying the House that it will receive managers, issues a formal summons and requests an answer from the impeached official, and organizes itself to sit as a High Court of Impeachment under its own rules while bound by constitutional mandates (oath requirement, Chief Justice presiding in presidential trials) [9] [3] [2].
5. The Senate trial: evidence, witnesses, and procedure
The Senate’s trial procedures are highly discretionary subject to constitutional overlay; senators sit on oath or affirmation, House managers act as prosecutors, the impeached official mounts a defense, evidence is presented and witnesses may be called, and the Senate may use organizing resolutions, trial committees, or unanimous‑consent agreements to structure timing and testimony—historical practice has varied considerably from trial to trial [2] [3] [10].
6. Vote, conviction, removal, and optional disqualification
After deliberation, the Senate votes on conviction; the Constitution requires the concurrence of two‑thirds of senators present to convict, and conviction’s immediate effect is removal from office, with a subsequent majority vote available to disqualify the individual from future federal office [2] [11] [1].
7. Limits, discretion, and political reality
While the constitutional clauses fix majority thresholds and the Chief Justice’s role in presidential trials, much else—timing, evidentiary rules, use of committees, and subpoena enforcement—rests on House and Senate rules, precedent, and political bargaining, meaning impeachment's progress from filing to removal depends as much on institutional choices and majorities as on legal definitions of “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” [10] [6] [11]. The sources document the formal steps but not every tactical variation or the political calculations that determine whether a majority in the House will pursue impeachment or whether two‑thirds in the Senate will convict [1] [3].