While congressional decisions and actions are invariably based on the numbers game, the determination of the required vote pursuant to House rules is not a game but an accurate count.
The official and indelible total number of members of the Committee on Justice on September 25, 2018, the day when the committee supposedly voted on the report and resolution dismissing the impeachment complaints against seven justices of the Supreme Court, is 68 members composed of 34 regular and 34 ex-officio members.
Consequently, the absolute majority required by the rules on impeachment is 35 votes, not merely 22 votes.
It is enigmatic how committee chair Representative Doy Leachon can claim that his committee has only 33 members with 17 votes as the absolute majority, when the ex-officio members alone total 34, of which 18 voted to approve the resolution for the dismissal of the consolidated complaints.
Of the 34 regular members, only 4 voted for the resolution, thus accounting for 22 votes including the 18 votes of the ex-officio members.
The total of 22 votes only is short by 13 votes to attain the required 35 votes constituting the absolute majority of all members of the committee, both regular and ex-officio.
The following incontrovertibly document that there are 68 members of the Committee on Justice:
- A written statement by the committee on justice itself clearly indicated that there are 34 regular members of the committee;
- The statement of the committee on rules that 34 ex-officio members have been elected to the committee;
- The roll call to ascertain the attendance called the names of the 68 members of the committee; and
- The transcript of stenographic notes of the proceedings in the committee on justice on September 25, 2018 confirms the foregoing facts and figures.
When the motion to approve the committee report and resolution dismissing the impeachment complaints was lost for lack of the requisite of 35 votes, the impeachment complaints were reinstated and their dismissal negated and reversed.
EDCEL C. LAGMAN