Historically, how often have privileged impeachment resolutions been referred to the Judiciary Committee and subsequently advanced to the House floor?
Executive summary
Privileged impeachment resolutions—those offered as a “question of the privileges of the House”—are routinely referred to the House Judiciary Committee when they directly call for impeachment, and historically many such referrals have produced no further action; four of the last five resolutions that actually led to an impeachment were first introduced and referred to the Judiciary Committee, but overall the House has initiated impeachment proceedings far more often than it has completed them [1] [2] [3]. Concrete, comprehensive counts comparing the number of privileged referrals to the number that the Judiciary Committee reported to the floor are not assembled in the sources provided, so precise percentages cannot be stated from this reporting alone [4] [5].
1. What "privileged" means and where referrals go
A Member may offer articles of impeachment on the floor as a question of privilege, which elevates consideration above ordinary business, but even privileged measures are subject to referral practices: resolutions that directly call for impeachment are typically referred to the Judiciary Committee, while resolutions that merely authorize investigations are initially referred to the Rules Committee [1] [6]. When a committee reports articles of impeachment, those articles are themselves privileged for immediate consideration on the House floor, but referral to the Judiciary Committee is the normal procedural waypoint for substantive impeachment resolutions [4] [7].
2. How often referrals stop in committee versus advance
The historical pattern documented in authoritative guides and CRS reporting shows that many impeachment resolutions introduced and referred to committee do not advance to floor votes; the House has initiated impeachment proceedings more than 60 times historically but there have been only 21 impeachments, demonstrating that referral does not equal advancement [3]. Multiple sources note that while referrals to Judiciary are common, “the committee is not required to act” and frequently takes no further action before the end of a Congress, leaving many referrals dormant [8] [5]. Sources also emphasize that a Judiciary Committee majority vote in favor of articles is the usual trigger to report those articles to the floor, underlining that committee approval is the bottleneck determining advancement [7].
3. Recent and notable patterns: when referrals do advance
In practice, the cases that do advance typically involve sustained, committee-level investigations and cross-committee coordination; four of the last five resolutions that culminated in an impeachment were initially introduced and referred to the Judiciary Committee, illustrating that the referral→committee-investigation→report→floor pathway remains the typical route for successful impeachments [2]. The Nixon-era multiple referrals show committees beginning examinations under their investigatory authority after referral [4], and the Trump impeachments illustrate a contemporary pattern where multiple committees investigated before the Judiciary Committee reported articles that the full House later adopted [9] [10].
4. Exceptions, political dynamics and limits of the record
There are important exceptions and political pressures: Members can still try to force immediate consideration by calling up privileged resolutions from the floor, and historical practice shows no instance in recent history in which an impeachment offered solely from the floor as a question of privilege succeeded in producing an adopted impeachment without committee reporting or a Rules Committee special rule [11]. The sources make clear that while referral is frequent and typically necessary for a sustained inquiry, comprehensive empirical tallies comparing the universe of privileged referrals to the number subsequently reported to the floor are not provided in the documents supplied; therefore a precise rate (for example, X% of privileged referrals that were reported out and reached the floor) cannot be asserted from these sources alone [4] [8].
5. Bottom line
Historically, privileged impeachment resolutions are commonly referred to the Judiciary Committee and that referral is the normal procedural step for substantive impeachment measures, but most referrals do not culminate in floor impeachment votes; only a minority of the many initiated proceedings have produced full impeachments, and the Judiciary Committee’s decision to report articles is the decisive gate that determines whether a privileged resolution advances to the House floor [1] [7] [3]. The available reporting demonstrates the pattern and its exceptions but does not supply a single authoritative count that would convert that pattern into an exact historical percentage [4].