November 2019 Volume 1

WASHINGTON UPDATE

FIA Lobby Firm Report By Steve Haro, Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas

Suffice to say, there is a lot going on in our nation’s capital. But first, a primer on impeachment. From Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution (establishing the House of Representatives): “The House of Representatives shall … have the sole power of impeachment.” From Article I, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution (establishing the Senate): “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments … When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present. Judgment in Case of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.” From Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution (establishing the presidency): “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

vote to remove a person from office requires a two-thirds majority (67 votes, or two-thirds of the members present). In the 242-year history of the United States Constitution, our country has entered into impeachments proceedings for presidents three times (Andrew Johnson, 1868; Richard Nixon, 1973-74; and Bill Clinton, 1998-99). Johnson and Clinton were both impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted by the Senate. Nixon resigned from office before the House could vote on articles of impeachment. On Sept. 24, our nation entered into its fourth impeachment process with the Speaker of the House announcing that the House of Representatives would begin a formal impeachment proceeding of President Donald Trump. What this means is that the House will now investigate whether the president’s actions constitute an impeachable offense as defined in Article II, Section 4. This is historic. And consequential. As readers have come to know and expect, this space in the magazine serves to provide you with a holistic look at what Congress is doing, needs to do and wants to do, particularly as it relates to legislation affecting our industry. We then combine that summary with an analysis handicapping the possible. And as readers have also come to surmise, our analysis is always caveated with the on-the-ground reality that legislating is a difficult process (and constitutionally designed to be as such) on the best of days. And we have not seen the best of days for an awfully long time. Now impeachment will add layers of complexity, caveats and consequences that make predicting the next few months more difficult than it usually is. Folks in Washington are of two minds on what this means for the legislative process going forward. Many believe impeachment will suck up all the available oxygen, rendering all other ideas and priorities moot, with government grinding to a halt (and potentially shutting down) and little to nothing getting done until the process plays out. The other side of the thought coin is that impeachment presents an opportunity. Politically speaking, each chamber of Congress and the White House should feel incentivized and compelled to show the country that the work of the people can still get done. And there exists historical precedent for this: Back in 1998, the impeachment process for President Clinton began on Oct. 8 and ended with his acquittal vote in the Senate on Feb. 12, 1999. In those four months and four days, Congress passed, and the president signed, 149 bills into law. Now, 2019 is a very different time than 1998-99. The nation is more polarized than it has ever been. We have a divided Congress,

So as constitutionally laid out previously, impeachment begins in the U.S. House of Representatives, where a decision must be made to draft and vote on articles of impeachment for a federal executive. If they decide to vote, a majority vote is required (218 votes, or a majority of the total number of representatives voting at that time). If those articles pass, the person is impeached, but is not removed fromoffice.The decision to remove that person fromoffice rests with the U.S. Senate, which must conduct a trial of the impeached person to determine whether he or she should be removed from office. A

FIA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2019 18