Impeachment Timeline

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRIFFITH. Madam Speaker, we have heard today several times that we were told this was urgent and that things must move quickly. And yet it has been 26 days since it was passed on the calendar, 15 working days, and 10 legislative days have gone by, and yet the Senate has not yet been informed of the Articles of Impeachment.

Now, Madam Speaker, let me get boring. Most politicians won't admit that, but that is what I am going to do because it is important that we understand the process.

So what happens is the Articles of Impeachment were passed by the House. We were told later this week that we are going to vote on managers who will then present the Articles of Impeachment at the bar of the Senate. That is their job. That means to prosecute the case. But the annotations to Jefferson's Manual--that is Jefferson's Manual of Parliamentary Practice and Procedure, for all of you policy-and- procedure wonks back home--we are told in there that the managers who are elected by the House or are appointed by the Speaker in obedience to a resolution of the House take this to the bar of the Senate, the House having previously informed the Senate.

Now, the problem is the House has not previously informed the Senate. And what we are going to do now is we are going to say: well, that is okay, but my summary look at the past indicates that the times that these have been separated, the notice to the Senate that impeachment resolutions were coming and the actual sending over of the managers to present the articles at the bar, the longest previously has been 4 days. Here it has been 26 calendar days, 15 working days, and 10 legislative days, and the Speaker of the House indicates to us that this is all fine and normal.

Madam Speaker, we should all be concerned, not just because we have what appears to be a trumped up--pun not intended--impeachment policy by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, but because if the Speaker can hold up H. Res. 755, the Articles of Impeachment, from being sent over to the Senate thus notifying them that managers will be coming to prosecute or present these impeachment articles at the bar of the Senate, then the Speaker can hold up anything the Speaker doesn't want the Senate having.

There are 435 Members of the United States House. While I do not agree with the impeachment articles, the House voted on them, and the Senate should have had those promptly. It takes a couple of days to get it through the process where all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed. This Speaker did not do that. It is a dangerous precedent because if H. Res. 755 can be held up, then I submit to you, Madam Speaker, anything can be held up. And if a Speaker suddenly decides that he or she does not agree with the will of this House, can they really stick it in their back pocket?

Can they really do a pocket Speaker veto of actions of this House?

Nothing of this nature has ever been contemplated, but that is what the actions of Speaker Pelosi tell us she is trying to do or at least tried to do if she didn't get her way in the Senate. It is unconscionable and against the principles of a democratic republic.

Be warned, be alert, and pay attention. Let's guard our Republic with every ounce of our energy.

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