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With impeachment on its way to the House floor, can Democrats create their own alternatives?
Updated December 14, 1998
5:10 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Court TV) — As the House Judiciary Committee shot down a proposed censure of President Clinton and even before they did, those seeking alternatives to impeachment are seeking some way — any way — to keep a censure option available to House members.
Their hopes lie in the complex and sometimes arcane parliamentary measures employed by the House.
As things stand now after the committee passed the fourth and last article of impeachment against the president last Saturday, the four articles — along with a Judiciary Committee report on impeachment — are on their way to the House floor for a scheduled Thursday debate.
The usual stop for bills passed by House committees is the Rules Committee, which schedules the bill for debate on the House floor and assigns a set of procedures (the "rules" from which the committee's name is derived) for consideration of the bill.
One of the committee's jobs is to ensure that when bills come to the floor, minority members have alternate options to vote for, even if the votes are essentially ceremonial in nature.
But when it comes to impeachment — and there was never a "SchoolHouse Rock" episode on this particular function of the legislative branch — the standard procedures don't apply. Impeachment articles are considered "privileged" by the House, which means they take precedence over any other matters the House has to consider: no stop in Rules, straight to the House floor.
Democrats cannot amend the articles but they are entitled to a motion to recommit the matter to the committee with instructions. And House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri could use that motion as a vehicle to seek a vote on censure.
The House parliamentarian already has decided that censure is not germane and would rule the Democratic motion out of order, according to Congressional aides. At that point, Gephardt could demand a vote appealing such a ruling. That, in effect, would then become the vote on whether censure should be considered.
However, a vote on to appeal the ruling is, in effect, a vote against the chair conducting the proceedings, in this case, Rep. Ray LaHood, a Republican from Peoria, Ill. who has great familiarity with parliamentary procedure and frequently oversees congressional debates.
Republicans, even if they might support consideration of a censure motion in addition to the impeachment articles, are unlikely to assist Democrats in that vote.
"That's a tough vote, to vote against your own chair," Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." Hyde also suggested that a censure motion could be introduced during the next Congress, which convenes just after the first of the year.
Still, Democrats have few other options to try to force a vote on censure. But they do have many other procedural ways to delay the impeachment votes, such as moving repeatedly that the House should adjourn. That could push the final votes to Friday or even later.
And of course, if a vote by the full House to appeal the chair's ruling succeeds, the House could begin consideration of a censure resolution.
If the House impeaches, the secretary of the Senate can accept the articles even without the Senate being in session. If articles are approved, the House would need to appoint managers who would argue the impeachment case before the Senate. That would require a separate vote, as would a necessary appropriations vote for funds so that the impeachment process could go forward to the Senate. It is possible that Democrats could try and forestall the additional votes as a way to delay the proceedings.
The next time the Senate is in session — currently scheduled for Jan. 6 but that could be moved up — the Senate would adopt an order informing the House of the day and time their managers should appear to exhibit the articles.
One of the House managers reads the articles to the Senate and then the managers leave. Then the Senate adopts another order to the House and to the chief justice telling them to appear for the beginning of the trial. When that time comes, the chief justice takes a special oath. He in turn administers the oath to all senators. At that point, the chief justice will set a date for the
president or his representatives to appear and answer the charges.
Court TV's Jon Bonné and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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