House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced a formal impeachment inquiry by the House of Representatives. Civil rights icon John Lewis says we must not delay, because “our democracy is at stake.” Seven freshman Democrats wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, “These new allegations [against President Trump] are a threat to all we have sworn to protect.” We do not yet know what further steps House Democrats will take toward impeachment this week, but we know for certain what they will do next week, and the week after that: nothing.
That’s because at the end of this week, the House will stand in recess until Oct. 15. In fact, of the 97 days left in 2019, the House is scheduled to be in session only 31 days.
Members of Congress do valuable things during the district work periods (as recess is technically known). They tour the communities they represent, meet with constituents, spend time with their families, and often travel to conduct oversight.
But if we are truly facing an existential fight over the integrity of American democracy, a constitutional crisis without parallel in our history, isn’t it worth sticking around Washington to work?
Impeachment is a political process, not a legal proceeding or a single up-or-down vote. If Washington Democrats believe that, in asking Ukraine’s president to dig up dirt on a political rival, possibly delaying American aid funding as leverage to incentivize such an investigation, President Trump committed an impeachable offense, they have a responsibility to call hearings, summon witnesses, establish the facts, and make their case to the public.
Democrats can’t do that if they’re not in our nation’s capital.
There is precedent for House Members canceling recess to address an urgent issue. In 2008, Republicans, then in the House minority, grew so frustrated by Pelosi’s refusal to act on expanding energy production in the face of skyrocketing gas prices that the GOP refused to the leave the Capitol at the start of the August recess.
For the entire month, Republican members remained in Washington, calling for action. Pelosi turned off the microphones on the House floor, and eventually turned off all the lights in the House chamber — but Republicans continued to take their case to the public, holding press conferences, bringing constituents and reporters to watch them speak in the darkened chamber, and broadcasting from the House floor using primitive livestreaming apps.
I’m not suggesting such guerrilla tactics are necessary today. After all, Democrats control the majority in the House. The House Democratic leadership can cancel next week’s recess at the stroke of a pen. They can work through weekends and holidays. The whole House can remain, or just the committees of jurisdiction, like Intelligence and Judiciary. If they create a special committee to investigate the president’s dealings with Ukraine, then perhaps only that special committee needs to remain on Capitol Hill.
But until Democrats’ actions match their apocalyptic rhetoric about the president’s alleged misdeeds, their words will continue to ring hollow. The president’s complaints that this is all political theater aimed at damaging him will seem reasonable, and Washington will quickly turn its attention to the next controversy.
If House Democrats want to be taken seriously, they need to stay and do their job.
Michael Steel (@Michael_Steel) served as press secretary for former House Speaker John Boehner from 2008 to 2015. He also served as press secretary for Paul Ryan during the 2012 presidential election.
