Hoyer predicts impeachment vote next week

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that Democrats will likely impeach President Trump before Christmas, setting the stage for floor votes in the lower chamber next week.

Behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Democrats earlier Tuesday introduced two articles of impeachment related to Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukrainian leaders for political favors. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said he’ll move those articles through the panel this week — likely on Thursday — and Hoyer predicted the full House will vote on them before the winter holidays.

“Assuming that they … report out articles, my presumption is that we will be considering them before we leave,” Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol.

Impeachment is just one of the enormous issues Democrats are hoping to pass by Dec. 20, when Congress is scheduled to recess for the year. The list includes a reauthorization of Pentagon funding, a sweeping government funding package to prevent a shutdown and a new trade accord with Mexico and Canada — a hard-fought deal that was announced Tuesday, shortly after Democrats introduced their impeachment articles.

Hoyer said the government-funding bills would be the top priority to allow the Senate time to move the package through the upper chamber next week.

He said the order of the remaining bills — trade and impeachment — remains to be determined.