How many votes are required to impeach a secretary of defense? and the process if congress were to file for impreachment.
Executive summary
The House of Representatives can impeach a cabinet official such as a secretary of defense by a simple majority vote in the House, and the Senate must then try the case and convict by a supermajority—constitutionally set at two‑thirds of Senators—to remove the official from office [1] [2]. The process begins with investigation and committee action in the House, proceeds to articles of impeachment and House passage, and culminates in a Senate trial where conviction results in removal and possibly disqualification from future office [3] [1] [4].
1. How many votes are needed to impeach in the House: the simple‑majority threshold
Impeachment in the House is a charge, not a conviction, and it requires only a simple majority vote of Representatives to adopt articles of impeachment against a federal “civil officer,” a category that includes cabinet secretaries such as the secretary of defense [2] [4]. That simple‑majority rule governs whether the House formally impeaches and forwards articles to the Senate for trial [1] [2].
2. How many votes are needed to convict in the Senate: the two‑thirds supermajority
The Constitution and Senate practice establish that conviction in an impeachment trial requires the concurrence of two‑thirds of the Senators, a supermajority standard that is necessary to remove an impeached official from office [1]. Senate rules and historical practice make clear that the Senate sits as a High Court of Impeachment, hears managers from the House, receives evidence, and then votes; without the two‑thirds vote to convict, the official is acquitted and remains in office [1] [3].
3. The step‑by‑step path from allegation to removal
The process typically begins with inquiries and investigations—either by House committees or via privileged resolutions—leading to the drafting of one or more articles of impeachment; once the House adopts the articles by a simple majority, the official is impeached and the matter is sent to the Senate [3] [2]. The House appoints “managers” who act as prosecutors in the Senate trial, the Senate adopts procedures for the trial and considers motions evidentiary and procedural, and then the Senate votes on conviction for each article—requiring the two‑thirds threshold to remove the official [1] [3].
4. Who qualifies and edge cases: cabinet secretaries, resignations, and jurisdictional questions
Cabinet secretaries are presidentially appointed principal officers and have long been treated as “civil officers” subject to impeachment, but scholarly and congressional writings acknowledge open questions about how broadly impeachment applies across the bureaucracy [4] [5]. The Senate has historically asserted jurisdiction to try officials who resigned before trial—most notably the 1876 Belknap case—by majority vote to proceed, although such jurisdictional decisions have sometimes been contested in legal commentary [5] [6].
5. Consequences, political context, and alternative viewpoints
Conviction in the Senate results in automatic removal from office and may be followed by a separate Senate vote to disqualify the person from future federal office; absent the two‑thirds vote, political considerations and evidentiary disputes often determine outcomes, making impeachment both a legal and intensely political mechanism [1] [4]. Observers emphasize that the standard “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” is inherently political and contested, and commentators note that impeachment proceedings often reflect partisan strategy as much as purely legal judgments [7] [8].
6. Historical touchstones that illustrate the rules in practice
Past impeachments illustrate the dual thresholds: William Belknap was impeached by the House and the Senate asserted jurisdiction to try him after his resignation but ultimately acquitted him, showing the Senate’s procedural power and the difficulty of securing the votes needed for conviction [5] [4]. More recently, the House impeached a cabinet‑level official and the Senate voted on admissibility and substance of articles, demonstrating how routine procedural rulings and partisan division shape whether the two‑thirds bar is reached [9] [10].