The US House began voting Tuesday evening on a procedural motion to refer eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee after the House clerk read the charges on the floor. Passing the motion would effectively kill any chance of Hegseth being impeached during the current Congress, while a defeat would send the resolution offered by outgoing Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie to debate and a floor vote on Wednesday. Ahead of the vote, the White House said it “strongly opposes” Massie’s resolution and urged lawmakers to send it to committee.

Republicans hold a 218-214 edge in the chamber, meaning Massie needs three Republican votes alongside all Democrats to block the referral motion if every member is present. Massie’s 34 page resolution accuses Hegseth of waging an unauthorized war in Iran past the 60 day War Powers Resolution limit, ignoring laws to minimize civilian casualties in a strike on a school in Minab, Iran, ordering extrajudicial killings in boat strikes that caused at least 243 deaths, capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro without congressional approval, conducting unauthorized strikes in Yemen, and retaliating against Democratic Senator Mark Kelly.

Massie argued ahead of the vote that his resolution is not about job performance, saying Hegseth “was very effective at killing schoolchildren in Iran” and “has broken laws and he’s violated the Constitution.” Hegseth dismissed the effort at a Tuesday morning Pentagon briefing as “policy disagreements” rather than high crimes and said he would execute the same military operations again, while House Speaker Mike Johnson called the push a “political gambit for attention” that lacked due process.