H. Res 660 (complete text here) was approved 232-196, and lays out the rules of the investigation for two of those certain committees. At some point the investigations will conclude. The house can then choose to vote to impeach. Or not. Upon impeachment by the house, the Senate conducts a trial which ends with a vote on whether to remove the impeachee from office. So we are on step one of a three-step process. Let’s do a quick march through H. Res 660 and see what it actually says.

“[It] bein’ the biggest crime of the last fifty Years and everybody wanted to get in the newspaper story about it,” as Arlo Guthrie once famously said. The ponderously-named House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is Chaired by Adam Schiff; the ranking minority member is Devin Nunes.

(1), the chair and ranking minority member of the Permanent Select Committee shall be permitted to question witnesses for equal specified periods of longer than five minutes, as determined by the chair.

This seems hopeful. A congressman from each of the two political parties gets to question each witness – the chairman (a Democrat since that party currently is in the majority in the House), and the ranking minority member (the party not in the majority, ie currently Republican). The “ranking member” may also subpoena witnesses subject to the approval of the chairman, and should the chairman deny the subpoena request the ranking member may appeal that decision to the committee as a whole. Currently this committee consists of thirteen Democrats and nine Republicans. There is also a provision for questioning of witnesses by employees of the permanent select committee upon request from the chair or the ranking member, though apparently other members of the committee may not question witnesses. The chairman is authorized, though notably not required, to release to the public transcripts of depositions, properly redacted. Finally, the committee is directed to issue a report with its findings and recommendations.

The Judiciary Committee is chaired by Jerrold Nadler, who the author would like to personally thank for making his research easier by listing his name at the top of the committee’s homepage in all caps, then repeating it liberally throughout the site; other chairs made me dig for that info. Somewhat harder to find was the name of ranking member Doug Collins. The primary duty of the committee is overseeing the administration of the federal courts and federal law enforcement agencies. This committee traditionally conducts impeachment investigations. H. Res 660 outlines an investigation protocol for the Judiciary Committee which is similar to that imposed on the Intelligence Committee.

So what about those other committees? Is your author slacking? No, the “guidance” of H. Res 660, to use the bureaucratese term of art, stops with the standing committee on the Judiciary and the permanent select committee on Intelligence. That open and transparent thing is not defined for those other named committees, who we shall now briefly introduce.

The Financial Services Committee is chaired by the charming and stateswomanly Maxine Waters, with Patrick McHenry of North Carolina as the ranking minority member. Foreign Affairs is chaired by the Eliot L. Engel of the Bronx with Michael McCaul as the ranking member; Ilhan Omar is also on the committee.

The Oversight and Reform Committee webpage, at of the time this article was written, still lists the late Elijah Cummings of Maryland as its chairman with Jim Jordan of Ohio as ranking member. Resigned member Katie Hill of California is also still listed. The committee also includes such congressional luminaries as longtime nonvoting member Eleanor Norton from the District of Columbia, IT-savvy Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, crusading freshman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

The Committee on Ways and Means is the oldest committee of the United States Congress, and is the chief tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives. The Committee derives a large share of its jurisdiction from Article I, Section VII of the U.S. Constitution which declares, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.” -Committee Website

While seemingly unimportant, the House Ways and Means Committee is the committee which writes tax legislation and claims jurisdiction over basically everything because of that. The committee is chaired by Richard Neal and the ranking member is Kevin Brady.

So there you have it. The stage is set. The roles cast. The House Select Committee on Intelligence seems to be taking the lead on this, and is the seeming star of the show. The House Committee on the Judiciary, though the traditional lead is cast in a supporting role. But keep an eye on the Oversight and Reform Committee; the committee contains three-quarters of the squad, and it will be interesting to see who replaces Cummings and Hill. Enjoy the show.