Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas on Tuesday introduced his articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, which will force the House to take up the measure later this week.
Green's resolution is unlikely to lead to an actual vote on impeachment in the House, but he can force the chamber to act on it under House rules within two legislative days, creating a dilemma for House Democratic leaders and the moderate Democrats who have largely tried to avoid the issue of impeachment.
While Green said Tuesday that he wants an up-or-down vote on articles of impeachment, the House has several options to dispose of his effort, though they each have drawbacks. The House could vote to table, or kill, the resolution, but that would in effect put lawmakers on the record about impeachment.
The House could also vote to refer the resolution to the Judiciary Committee, but Republicans would likely oppose that vote, forcing Democrats to vote in favor of the referral in order to move the resolution off the floor.
House leaders weren't saying how they would handle the resolution on Tuesday before Green formally introduced it.
"That will be up to our leadership team to decide," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said when asked about Green's push for a vote.
"We haven't really discussed how to dispose of it," said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. "I'm not gonna try to discourage him, you know, he has to do what he thinks is right."
Green has previously introduced resolutions forcing a floor vote on impeachment in 2017 and 2018. In both cases, the Republican-led House voted to table the measure, with a majority of Democrats joining Republicans to defeat it in both cases.
But this is the first time Green has forced a vote with Democrats controlling the House.
