What are the procedural steps and timeline required for the House to approve articles of impeachment and for the Senate to hold a trial?
Executive summary
The Constitution creates a two-step removal process: the House brings charges by approving articles of impeachment by a simple majority, and the Senate tries those charges and may remove the official by a two‑thirds vote [1] [2]. Practice fills constitutional gaps: the House typically investigates (often via a committee or a formal inquiry), drafts articles, votes them up, and appoints managers to prosecute in the Senate; the Senate then organizes itself as a court, takes oaths, receives the articles and often sets trial rules before hearing evidence and voting [3] [4] [5].
1. The House’s gate: inquiry, drafting, committee work, and a floor vote
Impeachment commonly begins with an inquiry—informal investigations, subpoenas, hearings or a Judiciary Committee probe—but the Constitution requires only the House’s ultimate majority vote on articles, not a formal inquiry itself, so the timeline in the lower chamber is driven by political and procedural choices rather than constitutional time limits [6] [1]. Committees gather evidence and may draft articles; those articles are reported to the Rules Committee or directly to the floor, where debate can be structured or limited by a rules resolution before the full House votes; adoption of any article requires a simple majority of present members [4] [7] [3].
2. Passing articles and naming managers: immediate practical steps after impeachment
When the full House adopts one or more articles, the official is formally impeached and the House concurrently selects members to serve as impeachment managers—effectively the prosecutors who will present the case to the Senate—and may pass a separate resolution to transmit the articles and name those managers, actions that can be done immediately upon adoption or be delayed by the Speaker depending on strategy [4] [8] [9].
3. Transmission and the Senate’s calendar: the constitutional frame and modern practice
Once articles are sent, the Senate’s constitutional role as the “sole Power to try” begins; historic and standing Senate impeachment rules provide a loose timeline: traditional practice—anchored in Impeachment Rule III—has the Senate proceed to consider the articles at 1:00 p.m. the next day (unless Sunday), though modern practice often organizes or even begins preliminary steps the same day the articles are presented [5] [8]. That window is flexible: the Senate can agree to act sooner or delay organization by unanimous consent or majority votes, so the interval between House adoption and active Senate proceedings ranges from hours to weeks depending on political choices [5] [10].
4. Organizing the trial: oath, response, managers, and evidentiary choices
To organize a trial the Senate swears in Senators to “do impartial justice,” issues summonses to the accused, requests a written answer, invites House managers to present the charges, and may ask for written statements from both sides; if the impeached person is the President the Chief Justice presides over the trial—an arrangement grounded in constitutional text and Senate practice [5] [11] [2]. The Senate can adopt detailed trial rules by majority vote—the same majority that sets rules for other business—deciding time limits, witness procedures, and whether to admit House investigative evidence automatically, as in recent precedents where the Senate voted specific time allotments for argument and witness depositions [12] [5].
5. The verdict and its thresholds, plus strategic exceptions
Conviction requires a two‑thirds vote of Senators present and removes the official; a separate simple‑majority vote can then disqualify the individual from future federal office [2] [1]. But the Senate also has procedural levers: it can delegate parts of the trial to a committee under Rule XI to save floor time, decline to hold a trial at all for an impeached but resigned official, or set rules that effectively limit witness testimony—choices that have been used variably in past trials and shape the practical timeline and outcome [10] [13].
6. Bottom line: constitutional anchors, procedural discretion, and political timing
Constitutional anchors are clear—the House impeaches by majority; the Senate tries and convicts by two‑thirds—but everything between those anchors is governed by House and Senate rules, precedent, and political calculation, meaning the procedural steps (investigation, drafting, House vote, transmission, Senate organization, trial, verdict) are fixed in sequence but wildly variable in timing depending on committee choices, floor rules, and strategic delays or accelerations in either chamber [4] [5] [1].